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THE  CAMBRIDGE  HISTORY 

OF 

ENGLISH  LITER  A  TURE 


VOLUME  I 

FROM  THE  BEGINNINGS 

TO  THE 

CYCLES  OF  ROMANCE 


The    Cambridge    History 

of 

English  Literature 

Edited  by 

A.  W.  Ward,  Litt.D.,  F.B.A. 

Master  of  Peterhouse 

and 

A.  R.  Waller,  M.A. 

Peterhouse 

Volume  I 

From  the  Beginnings  to  the  Cycles  of 
Romance 

2L3  -2i^3 


G.  p.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York    and  London 
Ube  1knicl?erboc[?cr  press 

1907 


Copyright,  1907 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


TCbe  ftniclierboclier  preee.  Hew  ]|?ork 


485'^ 


o 


«o 


)'307c5L 
V.I 


i  PREFACE 


IN  the  preliminary  statement  of  the  aims  and  objects  of  this 
History,  communicated  to  those  who  were  invited  to 
become  contributors  to  it,  the  editors  emphasised  the  fol- 
lowing purposes  of  their  undertaking. 

(a)  A  connected  account  was  to  be  given  of  the  successive 
movements  of  English  literature,  both  main  and  subsidiary; 
and  this  was  intended  to  imply  an  adequate  treatment  of 
secondary  writers,  instead  of  their  being  overshadowed  by  a 
few  great  names. 

(6)  Note  was  to  be  taken  of  the  influence  of  foreign 
literatures  upon  English  and  (though  in  a  less  degree)  of  that 
of  English  upon  foreign  literatures. 

(c)  Each  chapter  of  the  work  was  to  be  furnished  with  a 
sufficient  bibliography. 

Very  few  words  seem  needed  here,  in  addition  to  the  above 
by  way  of  preface  to  the  first  volume  of  the  History;  this 
volume  and  its  successors  must  show  how  far  editors  and 
contributors  have  been  able  to  carry  out  in  practice  the  prin- 
ciples by  which  they  have  been  guided.  It  may,  however, 
be  expedient,  while  directing  attention  to  a  few  details  in  the 
general  plan  of  the  w^ork,  to  dwell  rather  more  fully  on  one  or 
two  of  the  ideas  which  will  be  kept  in  view  throughout  its 
course. 

In  an  enquiry  embracing  the  history  of  motives,  causes,  and 
ends,  it  is  often  far  less  important  to  dwell  on  "leading" 
personalities  and  on  the  main  tendencies  of  literary  production, 
than  to  consider  subsidiary  movements  and  writers  below  the 
highest  rank,  and  to  trace,  in  apparently  arid  periods,  processes 
which  were  often  carried  on,  as  it  were,  underground,  or  seemed 
to  be  such  as  could  safely  be  ignored.  It  cannot  be  too  often 
urged  that  there  are  few,  if  any,  isolated  phenomena;  the 
voices  may  be  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness,  but  they  belong 


lU 


iv  Preface 

to  those  who  prepare  the  way.  While,  therefore,  anxious  that 
not  less  than  justice  shall  be  dealt  out  to  the  works  of  better- 
known  writers,  the  editors  have  tried  so  to  plan  these  volumes 
that  something  more  than  the  mere  justice  with  which  works 
designed  on  a  smaller  scale  have  had  to  content  themselves 
may  be  given  to  less  known  writers  and  to  so-called  fugitive 
literature. 

In  the  interest  both  of  the  general  reader  and  of  the  student, 
it  has  been  decided  to  insert  footnotes  below  the  text,  where  re- 
ferences seem  required.  These  have  been  kept  as  brief  as 
possible,  in  order  that  they  may  not  distract  attention.  Fur- 
ther notes  are,  in  special  cases,  added  in  the  appendix  and 
bibliographies  at  the  end  of  the  volume.  The  names  of  a  few 
writers  not  dealt  with  in  the  text  will  be  found  in  the  biblio- 
graphies ;  but  these  names  have  not,  it  is  hoped,  been  forgotten 
in  the  index.  And  the  birth  and  death  dates  of  most  of  the 
English  writers  mentioned  in  the  text  will  be  found  in  the  in- 
dex, rather  than  in  the  body  of  the  work. 

An  occasional  attempt  has  been  made  to  give  the  student 
some  assistance  by  means  of  critical  hints  in  the  bibliographies, 
and  to  point  out  where  he  may  best  obtain  fuller  information 
of  a  more  special  nature  than  can  possibly  be  given  within  the 
limits  of  a  general  history.  To  attempt  an  exhaustive  treat- 
ment of  any  one  writer,  however  eminent  or  however  insignific- 
ant, to  supply  analyses  of  well-known  books  which  are,  or 
should  be,  on  the  same  shelves  as  those  which  may  hold  these 
volumes,  or  to  devote  much  space  to  the  repetition  of  bio- 
graphical facts — all  this  has  seemed  to  lie  outside  the  scope 
of  the  present  work. 

While  it  is  desired  to  preserve  a  certain  unity  in  the  contents 
of  each  volume — an  easier  task,  probably,  in  the  case  of  those 
dealing  with  later  than  of  those  treating  of  earlier  times — yet 
the  editors  have  no  belief  in  "hard  and  fast"  limits  as  encom- 
passing any  epoch,  and  their  wish  is  that  this  History  shoiild 
unfold  itself,  unfettered  by  any  preconceived  notions  of  arti- 
ficial eras  or  controlling  dates.  They  venture,  therefore, 
to  remind  their  critics,  to  whom  they  confidently  look  for  an 
indication  of  mistakes,  that  some  of  the  subjects  wjiich  may 
seem  to  have  been  omitted  may  prove  to  have  been  deliberately 
reserved  for  later  treatment.     To  force  an  account  of  literary, 


€»  Preface  v 

educational,  or  scientific  movements  into  chronological  shackles, 
and  make  it  keep  step  year  by  year  with  the  progress  of  ex- 
ternal events,  or  to  present  it  as  an  orderly  development  when 
its  edges  are,  in  truth,  woefully  ragged,  is  not  always  either 
possible  or  desirable.  From  time  to  time,  buried  treasure  comes 
to  light ;  things  seemingly  of  a  day  suddenly  reveal  the  strength 
that  is  in  them  and  become  things  for  all  time;  and  the  way 
then  lies  open  for  a  profitable  retrospect.  Thus,  the  editors 
have  thought  it  simpler  to  defer  an  enquiry  into  the  first 
glimmerings  of  the  English  drama  and  an  account  of  the 
miracle  plays  until  towards  the  close  of  the  second  volume,  and 
to  deal,  on  broad  lines,  with  the  progress  of  the  English  lan- 
guage, as  the  vehicle  of  English  literature,  with  changes  in  Eng- 
lish prosody  and  with  the  work  of  universities  and  scholarship, 
towards  the  end  of  successive  periods,  rather  than  piecemeal  at 
successive  stages  of  each. 

With  regard  to  future  volumes — since  the  history  of  a 
nation's  literature  cannot  be  divorced  from  some  consideration 
of  its  political,  religious,  and  social  life,  including  its  manners 
as  well  as  its  phases  of  sentiment  and  fashion,  its  trivial 
thoughts  no  less  than  its  serious  '  movements — ^the  editors 
have  thought  it  well  to  make  some  provision  for  treating 
certain  subjects  more  or  less  closely  allied  to  literature  pure  or 
proper.  Such  are  the  literature  of  science  and  philosophy ;  and 
that  of  politics  and  economics ;  parliamentary  eloquence ;  the 
work  of  schools  and  universities  and  libraries ;  scholarship ;  the 
pamphlet  literature  of  religious  and  political  controversy; 
the  newspaper  and  the  magazine ;  the  labours  of  the  press  and 
the  services  of  booksellers ;  homely  books  dealing  with  precept 
and  manners  and  social  life ;  domestic  letters  and  street  songs ; 
accounts  of  travel  and  records  of  sport — the  whole  range  of 
letters,  in  its  widest  acceptation,  from  the  "Cambridge  Pla- 
tonists"  to  the  "fraternity  of  vagabonds."  And,  since  the 
literatures  of  the  British  Colonies  and  of  the  United  States  are, 
in  the  main,  the  literature  of  the  mother-country,  produced 
under  other  skies,  it  is  intended  to  give,  in  their  proper  place, 
some  account  of  these  literatures  also. 

Though  the  editors  are  jointly  responsible  for  the  work  as 
a  whole — both  text  and  bibliographies — it  is  obvious  that  an 
undertaking  of  this  nature  could  no  more  be  accomplished 


vi  Preface  • 

by  one  or  two  men  than  the  Cambridge  Modern  History  could 
have  been  written  by  a  few  hands.  It  could  only  be  begun, 
and  can  only  be  carried  to  completion  by  the  continued  co- 
operation of  many  scholars,  who,  whether  British  or  American, 
hold  their  common  heritage  as  a  thing  of  worth,  and  by  the 
ungrudging  assistance  of  continental  scholars,  whose  labours 
in  the  field  of  our  national  literature  entitle  them  to  the 
gratitude  of  Englishmen.  This  twofold  assistance  the  editors 
have  been  fortunate  enough  to  secure, for  the  volumes  already 
in  immediate  preparation.  In  addition  to  chapters  written 
by  English  scholars,  from  without  Cambridge  as  well  as  from 
within,  the  readers  of  the  Cambridge  History  of  English  Litera- 
ture will  have  the  benefit  of  contributions  from  specialists  of 
other  countries;  and  it  is  the  sincere  hope  of  the  editors  that 
they  may  enjoy  the  same  generous  support  until  their  task  is 
done. 

It  remains  to  thank  those  who,  apart  from  the  actual  con- 
tributors, have  aided  the  editors  in  the  work  of  the  earlier 
volumes  now  in  hand.  And,  first,  they  would  desire  to  re- 
member with  gratitude  the  labours  of  their  predecessors: 
Thomas  Warton,  whose  History  of  English  Poetry  may  be,  and, 
in  many  respects,  has  been,  superseded,  but  is  never  likely  to 
be  forgotten  or  cast  aside;  Thomas  Wright,  whose  industry 
and  enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  medieval  letters  and  archaeology 
allows  us  to  forget  his  failings ;  George  Lillie  Craik,  whose  modest 
efforts  kindled  in  many  men  still  living  their  first  affection  for 
English  letters;  Henry  Morley,  who  devoted  a  laborious  and 
zealous  life  to  the  noble  end  of  making  English  writers  widely 
accessible  to  students  and  who  died  before  he  could  complete 
the  last  and  most  important  piece  of  work  he  set  himself  to 
do;  Bernard  ten  Brink,  whose  history  of  English  literature 
to  the  death  of  Surrey  must  long  remain  unsurpassed  on  its  own 
ground — "Great  things";  as  he  himself  said  of  Surrey's  tragic 
end,  "he  might  still  have  accomplished,  but  what  he  did 
accomplish  has  not  been  lost  to  posterity."  Henri  Taine,  the 
master  of  analysis  and  the  first  to  show  the  full  significance  of 
the  study  of  a  nation's  literature  for  the  study  of  its  general 
history;  Hermann  Hettner,  in  whose  History  of  English  Liter- 
ature from  1660  to  1770,  and  the  companion  accounts  of  French 
and  German  literature  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  compar- 


Preface 


Vll 


ative  method  is  luminously  applied;  Georg  Brandes,  whose 
Main  Currents  in  the  Literature  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 
reveals  an  extraordinary  quickness  of  intellectual  insight  and 
a  not  less  uncommon  brcu  "Ith  ui  moral  sympathy;  Henry 
Duff  Traill,  whcoc  Onlliant  gifts  are  held  in  aft'ectionate  re- 
membrance by  those  who  have  come  under  their  spell,  and 
whose  symposium.  Social  England,  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  all  who  desire  to  possess  "a  record  of  the  progress  of  the 
people  " ;  L.  Petit  de  JuUeville,  whose  Histoire  de  la  Langue  et  de 
la  Litteratiire  frangaise  has  been  of  special  value  and  assistance 
in  the  planning  of  the  present  work;  Grein,  Kolbing,  Matzner, 
Wiilker,  Zupitza  and  many  other  eminent  Teutonic  scholars 
who  have  made,  and  are  making,  the  paths  smoother  for  their 
contemporaries  and  for  their  successors.  The  brilliant  Histoire 
Litt^raire  du  Peuple  Anglais  of  M.  J.  J.  Jusserand  has  been 
constantly  in  the  hands  of  the  editors  of  this  work,  and  the 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica  and  the  Dictionary  of  National  Bio- 
graphy have,  as  a  matter  of  course,  been  laid  under  contribu- 
tion, together  with  the  extremely  useful  Chambers's  Cyclo- 
paedia of  English  Literature,  a  work  which,  used  with  delight 
in  its  old  form,  many  years  ago,  by  the  writers  of  this  preface, 
has,  in  its  revised  garb,  proved  of  considerable  use.  The 
invaluable  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache  und 
Literatur,  with  which  is  associated  the  names  of  H.  Paul,  W. 
Braune,  and  E.  Sievers,  has  been  repeatedly  referred  to,  and 
always  with  advantage,  while  the  bibliographies  will  show 
what  use  has  been  made  of  Anglia,  Englische  Studien,  Romania, 
the  publications  of  American  Universities  and  of  Modern 
Language  assc  ciations.  In  this  last  connection  may  be 
T  ■•  vii^xXa  the  lv±^dc\::  7  ^■ygi/nae  Review,  recently  reconstituted 
under  the  editorship  of  Prof.  j.  G.  Robeicson.  For  advice  on 
certain  points  in  the  present  volume,  or  for  assistance  urvftlTer 
ways,  the  editors'  thanks  are  also  due  to  Dr.  F.  J.  Furnivall, 
whose  labours,  together  with  those  of  the  band  of  fellow-workers 
in  the  Early  English  Text  Society,  have  done  much  to  remove 
the  reproach  that  Englishmen  were  not  alive  to  the  beauties 
of  their  own  literature;  to  Professor  W.  W.  Skeat,  Miss  Steel 
Smith,  Prof.  G.  L.  Kittredge  and  to  Prof.  Alois  Brandl,  with 
other  eminent  members  of  the  Deutsche  Shakespeare  Gesellschaft; 
and   to   the   writings    of    Dr.    Stopford  A.  Brooke,  Professor 


viii  Preface 

Albert  S.  Cook,  Prof.  T.  R.  Lounsbury  and  Prof.  W.  H. 
Schofield.  Other  debts,  too  numerous  to  set  forth  in  detail, 
it  has  only  been  possible  to  acknowledge  by  the  insertion  of 
names  and  titles  of  works  in  the  bibliographies;  but  our 
thanks  will,  we  trust,  be  read  "between  ^^^  lines"  by  all  our 
fellow-workers. 

A.  W.  W. 
A.  R.   W. 

Peterhouse,  Cambridge 
2  August,  1907 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  BEGINNINGS 

By  A.  R.  Waller,  M.A.,^eterhouse. 


^ 


PAGE 

Characteristics  of  the  earliest  Poetry.     The  Glfemen.     Theodore  and 

Hadrian.     National  Strife  .......  i 

CHAPTER  II  .    ^ 

RUNES  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 

By  A.  C.  Paues,  Ph.D.  Upsala,  Newnham  College. 

The  Xational  Germanic  Alphabet.  Runes  in  Scandinavian  and  Old 
English  Literature.  The  Ruthwell  Cross.  The  Franks  Casket. 
The  Roman  Alphabet.  The  Irish  School  of  Writing.  Tablets, 
parchment,  vellum,  paper,  pens,  ink,  and  binding.  Scribes  and 
scriptoria         ..........  7 

CHAPTER  III 

EARLY  NATIONAL  POETRY         ^^ 

By  H.  MuNRO  Chadwick,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Clare  College. 

Early  National  Poems  the  work  0/  -.lirs-^rr^:.  Teutonic  Epic  Poetry. 
Beowidj:  Scandinavian  Traditions;  Personalit>  ^1^  the  Hero;  Origin 
and  Antiquity  of  the  Poem;  the  Religious  Element  ^.Finnsburh. 
The  V.'aldhere  Fragments.  Widsith.  Deor.  The  \\\i,::^''rer. 
Th"  Seafarer.  The  Wife's  Complaint.  The  Husband's  Message. 
The  Ruin.     Religious  Poetry  of  Heathen  Times  .  .  .        2X 

CHAPTER  IV 

OLD  ENGLISH  CHRISTIAN  POETRY 


By  M.  Bentinck  Smith,  M.A., 
Headmistress  of  St.  Leonard's  School,  St.  Andrews. 


Celtic  Christianity.  Changes  wrought  by  the  New  Spirit.  Caedmon's 
Hymn.  Genesis,  Exodus,  Daniel.  Crist  and  Satan.  Cynewulf. 
His  Personality.  Crist,  Juliana,  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles, 
Elene.  Andreas.  The  _  Dream,  of  the  Rood.  Gtithlac,  The 
Phoenix,  Physiologus,  Riddles.  Minor  Christian  Poems.  The 
Riming  Poem,  Proverbs,  The  Runic  Poem,  Salomon  and  Saturn.  ' 
The  Schools  of  Caedmon  and  Cynewulf      .....        45 


X  Contents 

CHAPTER  V 

LATIN  WRITINGS  IN  ENGLAND  TO  THE  TIME  OF  ALFRED 

By  Montague  Rhodes  James,  Litt.D. 
Provost  of  King's  College. 

PAGET 

Gildas  and  The  History  of  the  Britons.  "Hisperic"  Latin.  Nennius 
and  Historia  Brittomim.  The  Roman  Mission  to  Kent  and  its 
results.  Aldhelm  and  his  School.  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History. 
Bede's  Letter  to  Egbert  of  York.  Alcuin.  Lives  of  Saints. 
Visions.     Minor  writings  .  .  .  .  .  .  .72 

CHAPTER  VI 

ALFRED  AND  THE  OLD  ENGLISH  PROSE  OF  HIS  REIGN 

By  P.  G.  Thomas,  M.A.,  Professor  of  English  Language  and 
Literature  at  Bedford  College,  University  of  London. 

Asser's  Life  of  Alfred.     The  Handbook  an3~i^5^0fvj^ar^.     Translations 

of  Orosius  and  Bede.     Codes  of  Law.     De  Consolatione  Philoso- 

pkiae.     The  metres  in  Alfred's  Boethius.     Augustine's  Soliloquies. 

j      The  Chronicle.     Gregory's  Dialogues.     Works  attributed  to  Alfred. 

V       His  Literary  Achievement         .  .  .  .  .  .  .97, 

CHAPTER  Vn 

FROM  ALFRED  TO  THE  CONQUEST 

By  John  S^^35f  s-STtASE,  x.i.A.,  Trinity  Ci^uege. 

The    C^£iv^^rr???     The    Monastic     Reform.     Blickling    Homilies.     Ihe 
^^....-^-'Works  of  Aelfric.     Wulfstan.     Byrhtferth.       Lindisfarne,  Rush- 

uorth,  and  West  Saxon  Glosses.     Legends  of  the  Holy  Rood.     Leg-         . 
ends  of  the  East.     Quasi-scientific  works.     The  Ballads  and  Poetns  ^ 

in  The  Chronicle.     Judith.     The  Battle  of  Maldon  or  Byrhtnoth' s 
Death.     Menologium.     Be  Domes  Daege     .  .  .  .  .119 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST 

By  A.  R.  Waller. 


J 


Dunstan.     The  Coming' Change.     The  Wisdom  of  the  East.     Lanfranc. 

Anselm.     Norman  Gifts  .  .  .  .  .  .  .165 


Contents 


XI 


CHAPTER  IX 

LATIN   CHRONICLERS  FROM  THE   ELEVENTH  TO 
THE  THIRTEENTH  CENTURIES 

By  W.  Lewis  Jones,  M.A.,  Professor  of  English  Language  and 
Literature  at  the  University  College  of  North  Wales. 

PAGE 

England  and  Normandy.  Characteristics  of  the  Chroniclers.  The 
Northumbrian  School  of  English  Medieval  History.  Simeon  of 
Durham.  Florence  of  Worcester.  Eadmer  and  Ordericus  Vitalis. 
William  of  Malmesbury.  Gesia  Stephani.  Henry  of  Huntingdon. 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth.  WilHam  of  Newburgh.  Benedict  of 
Peterborough.  Richard  Fitz-Neale.  Roger  of  Hoveden.  Ralph 
of  Diceto.  Richard  of  Devizes.  Jocelin  of  Brakelond.  Giraldus 
Cambrensis.    Walter  Map.    Matthew  Paris.    Minor  Chroniclers      .      173 


CHAPTER  X 

ENGLISH  SCHOLARS  OF  PARIS  AND  FRANCISCANS  OF 
OXFORD 

Latin    Literature   of   England   from  John   of   Salisbury   to 
Richard  of  Bury 

By  J.  E.  Sandys,  Litt.D.,  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College   and 
Public  Orator  of  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

The  University  of  Paris.  English  Scholars  of  Paris.  John  of  Salisbury. 
Peter  of  Blois.  Walter  Map.  Other  Writers  of  Latin.  Gervase. 
Nigel  Wireker.  Jean  de  Hauteville.  Alain  de  Lille.  Geoffrey  de 
Vinsauf.  Alexander  Neckam.  Joannes  de  Garlandia.  Giraldus 
Cambrensis.  Michael  Scot.  Franciscans  and  Dominicans.  Fran- 
ciscans of  Oxford.  Alexander  of  Hales.  Robert  Grosseteste 
an  1  the  Franciscans.  Adam  Marsh.  Roger  Bacon.  Duns  Scotus. 
William  of  Ockham.  Walter  Burleigh.  Scholars  of  Oxford.  John 
Baconthorpe.     Thomas  Bradwardine.     Richard  of  Bury      .  .      203 


y 


CHAPTER  XI 


EARLY  TRANSITION  ENGLISH 

By  J.  W.  H.  Atkins,  M.A.,  Professor  of  English  Language  and 
Literature  at  the  University  College  of  Wales,  Aberystwyth, 
Fellow  of  St.  John's  College. 

The  Proverbs  of  Alfred.  Poema  Morale.  Literary  Revolt  of  the  13th 
Century.  Orrnulum.  Hortatory  Verse  and  Prose.  Genesis  and 
Exodus.  The  Bestiary.  An  Bispel.  Sawles  Warde.  Halt  Alei- 
denhad.  Lives  of  the  Saints.  Ancren  Riwle .  The  Virgin  Cult  and 
Erotic  Mysticism.  The  Luve  Ron.  LaYamon's  Brut.  The  Owl 
aiid  Nightingale        .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .241 


J 


J 


xii  Contents 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE  ARTHURIAN   LEGEND 

By  W.  Lewis  Jones,  M.A.,  Professor  of  English  Language  and 
Literature  at  the  University  College  of  North  Wales, 
Bangor,  formerly  Scholar  of  Queens'  College. 

PAGE 

Early  Welsh  Tradition.     Nennius     and    Gildas.     Early  Welsh  Poetry. 

Kulhwch  and  Olwen.     The  Mahinogwn.     Geoffrey  of  Monmouth.       / 
Caradoc  of  Llancarvan.     The  French  Romances.      Wace.     Laya- 
mon.      Subsidiary      Legends.     Merlin.     Gawain.     Lancelot     and 
Guinevere.     The  Holy  Grail.     Tristram  and  Iseult.     Celtic  Liter- 
ature     •  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .270 

CHAPTER  XIII 

METRICAL  ROMANCES,   1200-1500 
I 

By  W.  P.  Ker,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford, 
Professor  of  English  Literature,  University  College,  London. 

French  Influences.  Benoit  de  Ste.  More  and  Chretien  de  Troyes. 
Translators'  difficulties.  History  of  the  English  Romances.  Mat- 
ter and  Form.  The  "matter  of  France,"  "of  Britain,  "  and  "of 
Rome."  Sources  and  Subjects.  Forms  of  Verse.  Traditional 
Plots.  Breton  Lays.  Fairy  Tales.  Sir  Gawayne  and  Sir  Tris- 
trem.  The  Tale  of  Gamelyn  and  The  Tale  of  Beryn.  Relation  of 
Romances  to  Ballads        ........      308 

CHAPTER  XIV 

METRICAL  ROMANCES,  1200-1500 

II 

By  J.  W.  H.  Atkins. 

The  Carolingian  Element.  English  Romances:  Havelok,  Horn,  Guy 
of  Warwick,  Bci'cs  of  Hamtoun.  The  literature  of  Antiquity: 
Troy,  King  Alisaundcr,  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion.  Oriental  Fable: 
Flores  and  Blancheflour ,  The  Seven  Sages  of  Rome.  Celtic  Romances. 
The  Gawain  Cycle.  Ipoincdon,  Amis  and  Amiloun,  Sir  Cleges,  Sir 
Isumbras,  The  Squire  of  Low  Degree.  William  of  Palcrne,  etc. 
Anonymity  of  the  work  embodied  in  the  Romances.  Qualities 
and  Defects    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  •  ^     •      335 


Contents  xlii 

CHAPTER  XV 

"  PEARL,"  "  CLEANNESS,"  "  PATIENCE,"  AND  "  SIR  G  A  WAYNE  " 

By  I.  GoLLANCZ,  Litt.D.,  Christ's  College,  Professor  of  English 
Language  and  Literature,  King's  College,  London,  Secre- 
tary of  the  British  Academy. 

PAGE 

Sources  and  Metre  of  Pearl.  Cleanness  and  Patience.  Sir  Gawayne 
and  the  Grenc  Knight.  Sources  of  Sir  Gawayne.  The  Question 
of  Authorship.  Hypothetical  Biography  of  the  Poet.  Ralph 
Strode.     Huchoun  of  the  Awle  Ryale.     Erkenwald,  etc      .  '357 


CHAPTER  XVI 

LATER  TRANSITION  ENGLISH 
I 

Legendaries  and  Chroniclers 

By  Clara  L.  Thomson. 

Robert  of  Gloucester.  Thomas  Bek.  The  South  English  Legendary. 
Northern  Homilies  and  Legends.  The  Northern  Psalter.  Cursor 
Mundi.  Robert  Mannyng  of  Brunne's  Handlyng  Synne.  Char- 
acteristics of  Mannyng's  style.  Mannyng's  Debt  to  Wadington. 
Mannyng' 5  Chronicle.  The  Medytacyuns.  William  of  Shoreham. 
The  Ayenbite  of  Inwyt.     Adam  Davy.     Laurence  Minot        .  -374 


U^ 


CHAPTER  XVII 

LATER  TRANSITION  ENGLISH 
II 

Secular  Lyrics;  Tales;  Social  Satire  j 

By  A.  R.  Waller. 

Middle  English  Lyrics.  The  Proverbs  of  Hendyng.  The  Deeds  of 
Hercward.  The  Land  of  Cokaygne.  Dame  Siriz.  The  Vox  and 
the  Wolf.  The  Turnament  of  TotenJtam.  The  Tale  of  Gamelyn. 
Gesta  Romanorum.  John  de  Bromyarde.  The  Childhood  of 
Jesus.  Political  verses.  Songs  of  the  Soil.  John  Ball.  The 
Black  Death  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  402 

1  Further  chapters  on  Fugitive  Social  Literature  of  the  14th  and  15th 
centuries  will  be  found  in  Vol.  II. 


L^^ 


1 


/ 


xiv  Contents 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  PROSODY  OF  OLD  AND  MIDDLE  ENGLISH 

By  George  Saintsbury,  M.A.,  Merton  College,  Oxford,  Pro- 
fessor of  Rhetoric  and  English  Literature  in  the  University 
of  Edinburgh. 

PAGE 

Old  English  Verse.  The  Transition.  Foreign  Influence.  The  Alliter- 
ative Revival  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .416 

CHAPTER  XIX 

CHANGES  IN  THE  LANGUAGE  TO  THE  DAYS  OF  CHAUCER 

By  Henry  Bradley,  M.A.,  (Oxon.). 

Continuity  of  the  English  Language .  ' '  English  ' '  and  ' '  Saxon . ' '  Periods 
of  English.  Changes  in  Grammar.  Old  English  Grammar. 
Changes  in  Declension.  Conjugation  in  Middle  English.  Influence 
of  the  Norman  Conquest.  Pronunciation  and  Spelling.  Middle 
English  Spelling.  Development  of  Sounds.  Changes  in  Vocabu- 
lary. Words  adopted  from  French.  Scandinavian  Words  in 
English.  Loss  of  Native  Words.  The  Poetical  Vocabulary. 
English  Dialects  in  the  Fourteenth  Century         .  .  .  .424 

CHAPTER  XX 

THE  ANGLO-FRENCH  LAW  LANGUAGE 

By  the  late  F.  W.  Maitland,  LL.D.,  Downing  Professor 

of  the  Laws  of  England. 

(By  permission  of  the  Council  of  the  Selden  Society.) 

Retention  of  French  in  the  Courts.     The  Making  of  Legal  Terms         .      455 


Appendix  to  Chapter  VII.     By  J.  S.  Westlake  .  .  .  .461 

Bibliographies        .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .469 

Table  of  Dates       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  -536 

Index 539 


The    Cambridge    History     of 
English    Literature 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Beginnings 

2  3  ^«^© 

BY  the  time  the  EngHsh  settlements  in  Britain  had  assumed 
permanent  form,  Httle  seems  to  have  been  left  from  the 
prior  Roman  occupation  to  influence  the  language  and 
literature  of  the  invaders.  Their  thought  and  speech,  no  less 
than  their  manners  and  customs,  were  of  direct  Teutonic  origin, 
though  these  were  afterwards  in  some  slight  degree,  modified 
by  Celtic  ideas,  derived  from  tne  receding  tribes,  and,  later,  and 
in  a  greater  measure,  by  the  Christian  and  Latin  elements  that 
resulted  from  the  mission  of  St.  Augustine.  Danish  inroads 
and  Norman-French  invasions  added  fresh  qualities  to  the 
national  character  and  to  its  modes  of  expression;  but,  in  the 
main,  English  literature,  as  we  know  it,  arose  from  the  spirit 
inherent  in  the  viking  makers  of  England  before  they  finally 
[settled  in  this  island. 

Of  the  origins  of  Old  English  poetry  we  know  nothing ;  what 
remains  to  us  is  chiefly  the  reflection  of  earlier  days.  The  frag- 
ments that  we  possess  are  not  those  of  a  literature  in  the  making^ 
but  of  a  school  which  had  passed  through  its  age  of  transition 
from  ruder  elements.  The  days  of  apprenticeship  were  over ; 
the  Englishman  of  the  days  of  Beowulf  and  Widsith,  The  Ruin 
and  The  Seafarer,  knew  what  he  wished  to  say,  and  said  it, 
without  exhibiting  any  apparent  trace  of  groping  after  things 
dimly  seen  or  apprehended.  And  from  those  days  to  our  own, 
in  spite  of  periods  of  decadence,  of  apparent  death,  of  great 
superficial  change,  the  chief  constituents  of  English  literature — 
a  reflective  spirit,  attachment  to  natlire,  a  certain  carelessness 
of  "art,"  love  of  home  and  country  and  an  ever  present  con- 
sciousness that  there  are  things  worse  than  death — these  have, 
in  the  main,  continued  unaltered.  "Death  is  better,"  says 
"Wiglaf,  in  Beowulf,  "for  every  knight  than  ignom,inious  life," 


2  The  Beginnings 

and,  though  Claudio  feels  death  to  be  "a  fearful  thing,"  the 
sentiment  is  only  uttered  to  enable  Shakespeare  to  respond 
through  the  lips  of  Isabella,  "  And  shamed  life  a  hateful," 

It  is,  for  instance,  significant  of  much  in  the  later  history  of 
the  English  people  and  of  their  literature,  that  the  earliest 

I  poems  in  Old  English  have  to  do  with  journeyings  in  a  distant 
land  and  with  the  life  of  the  sea.  Our  forefathers  had  inhab- 
ited maritime  regions  before  they  came  to  this  island ;  the  terror 
and  the  majeky  and  the  loneliness  of  the  sea  had  already  cast 
their  natural  spells  on  "far-travelled"  "seafarers"  when  Eng- 
lish literature,  as  we  know  it,  opens.     The  passionate  joy  of  the 

I  struggle  between  man  and  the  forces  of  nature,  between  seamen 
and  the  storms  of  the  sea,  finds  its  expression  in  the  relation  of 
the  struggle  between  Beowulf  and  .the  sea  monster  Grendel, 
and  of  the  deeds  of  Beowulf  and  his  hard-fighting  comrades. 
Though  die  Nordsee  ist  eine  Mordsee,  love  of  the  sea  and  of  sea 
things  and  a  sense  of  the  power  of  the  sea  are  evident  in  every 
page  of  Beowidf.  The  note  is  struck  in  the  very  opening  of  the 
poem,  wherein  the  passing  of  the  Danish  king  Scyld  Scefing,  in 
a  golden-bannered  ship,  is  told  in  lines  that  recall  those  in  which 
a  later  poet  related  the  passing  of  an  EngHsh  king,  whose  barge 
was  seen  to 

pass  on  and  on,  and  go 
From  less  to  less  and  vanish  into  light. 

The  life  of  those  whose  task  it  was  to  wander  along  "  the 
ocean-paths"  across  "the  ice-cold"  northern  sea,  where  feet 
were  "fettered  by  the  frost,"  is  described  in  The  Seafarer  as  a 
northern  fisher  of  to-day  might  describe  it,  could  he  "unlock 
the  word-hoard  " ;  EngHsh  and  northern  also  is  the  spirit  of  the 
lines  in  the  same  poem  wherein  is  described  the  spell  cast  by 
the  sea  on  its  lovers : 

For  the  harp  he  has  no  heart,  nor  for  having  of  the  rings, 
Nor  in  woman  is  his  weal ;  in  the  world  he's  no  delight. 
Nor  in  anything  whatever  save  the  tossing  o'er  the  waves! 
O  for  ever  he  has  longing  who  is  urged  towards  the  sea.^ 

These  "wanderers"  are  of  the  same  blood  as  the  sea  kings 

and  pirates  of  the  old  sagas,  and  their  love  of  nature  is  love  of 

/    her  wilder  and  more  melancholy  aspects.     The  rough  woodland 

and  the  stormy  sky,  "the  scream  of  the  gannet"  and  "the 

J  Stopford  Brooke's  version. 


The  Gleemen  3 

moan  of  the  sea-mew"  find  their  mirror  and  echo  in  Old  Eng- 
lish literature  long  before  the  more  placid  aspects  of  nature 
are  noted,  for  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that,  as  Jusserand  says, 
the  sea  of  our  forefathers  was  not  a  Mediterranean  lakc.^  The 
more  placid  aspects  have  their  turn  later,  when  the  conquerors 
of  the  shore  had  penetrated  inland  and  taken  to  more  pastoral 
habits;  when,  also,  the  leaven  of  Christianity  had  worked. 

The  first  English  men  of  letters  of  whom  we  have  record — 
smiths  of  song,  as  they  are  called  in  The  Ynglingla  Saga — ^were 
the  gleemen  of  minstrels  who  played  on  the  harp  and  chanted 
heroic  songs  while  the  ale-mug  or  mead-cup  was  passed  round, 
and  who  received  much  reward  in  their  calling.  The  teller  of 
the  tale  in  Widsith  is  a  typical  minstrel  of  this  kind,  concerned 
with  the  exercise  of  his  art.  The  scop^  composed  his  verses  and 
"  published  "them  himself ;  most  probably  he  was  a  great  plagiar- 
ist, a  forerunner  of  later  musicians  w^hose  "adoption"  of  the 
labours  of  their  predecessors  is  pardoned  for  the  sake  of  the 
improvements  made  on  the  original  material.  The  music  of 
skirling  bagpipes  and  of  the  regimental  bands  of  later  times 
is  in  the  direct  line  of  succession  from  the  chanting  of  tribal 
lays  by  bards  as  warriors  rushed  to  the  fight;  the  "chanties" 
of  modem  sailors  stand  in  the  place  of  the  songs  of  sea-rovers 
as  they  revelled  in  the  wars  of  the  elements,  or  rested  inactive 
on  the  lonely  seas.  And  the  gift  of  song  was  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  professionals.  Often  the  chieftain  himself  took  up  the 
harp  and  sang,  perhaps  a  little  boastfully,  of  great  deeds.  At 
the  other  end  of  the  scale,  we  hear  of  the  man  whose  duty  it  was 
to  take  a  turn  at  the  stable-work  of  a  monastery  being  sad  at 
heart  when  the  harp  was  passed  round  and  he  had  no  music  to 
give;  and  the  plough-lad,  when  he  had  drawn  his  first  furrow, 
revealed  both  his  capacity  for  song  and  his  nature-worship, 
with  faint,  if  any,  traces  of  Christianity,  in  lines  perhaps  among 
the  oldest  our  language  has  to  show : 

Hal  wes  thu,  folde,  fira  modor, 

beo  thu  growende  on  godes  faethme; 

fodre  gefylled  firum  to  nytte. 

^La  mer  des  Anglo-Saxons  n'est  pas  line  Mediterranee  lavant  de  ses  flats 
bleiis  les  murs  de  marbre  des  villas:  c'est  la  iner  du  Nord,  aux  lames  grises,  bordce 
de  plages  steriles  et  de  falaises  de  craie. — Histoire  Littcraire  du  Peiiple  A  nglais. 
I,  60.  ,  . 

2  A  minstrel  of  high  degree,  usually  attached  to  a  court. 


4  The  Beginnings 

Hale  be  thou  Earth,  Mother  of  men! 

Fruitful  be  thou  in  the  arms  of  the  god. 

Be  filled  with  thy  fruit  for  the  fare-need  of  man' ! 

Of  the  history  of  these  early  poems,  as  much  as  is  known, 
or  as  can  fairly  be  set  forth,  is  given  in  the  following  pages. 
"^^  Beowulf — romance,  history  and  epic — is  the  oldest  poem  on  a 
great  scale,  and  in  the  grand  manner,  that  exists  in  any  Teu- 
tonic language.  It  is  full  of  incident  and  good  fights,  simple 
.  in  aim  and  clear  in  execution ;  its  characters  bear  comparison 
with  those  of  the  Odyssey  and,  like  them,  linger  in  the  memory; 
its  style  is  dignified  and  heroic.  The  invasion  and  conquest  of 
"England"  by  the  English  brought  heathendom  into  a  Chris- 
tian communion,,  and  Beowulf  is  the  literary  expression  of  the 
temper,  the  thoughts  and  the  customs  of  these  invaders.  Its 
historical  worth,  apart,  altogether,  from  its  great  literary  value, 
can  scarcely  be  over-estimated.  The  Christian  elements  in  it 
•^  are,  probably,  alterations  of  later  minstrels;  in  the  main,  it 
presents  an  ideal  of  pagan  \drtues :  strength,  manliness,  acquies- 
cence in  the  decrees  of  fate — "what  is  to  be  must  be" — yet 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  "the  must-be  often  helps  an  un- 
doomed  man  when  he  is  brave,"  a  sentiment  that  finds  echo  in 
later  days  and  in  other  languages  besides  our  own. 

In  The  Complaint  of  Deor,  and  in  its  companion  elegies,  we 
are  probably  nearer  to  original  poems  than  in  the  case  of  nar- 
rative verse,  built  up  of  lays  and  added  to  year  after  year  by 
different  hands ;  and  we  can  ask  for  little  better  at  the  hands  of 
Old  English  poets.  Deor  shows  us  the  same  spirit  of  courage  in 
adversity  seen  in  Beowulf;  and  its  philosophical  refrain  (besides 
shadowing  forth  the  later  adoption  of  rime  by  reason  of  a 
refrain's  recurring  sound)  is  that  of  a  man  unbowed  by  fate. 
In  form  as  well  as  in  utterance,  the  verses  are  those  of  a  poet 
who  has  little  to  learn  in  the  art  of  translating  personal  feeling 
into  fitting  words. 

It  is  a  real,  an  unaffected,  an  entirely  human  though  non- 
Christian,  accent  that  we  hear  in  the  impassioned  fragment 
called  The  Ruin.  The  Wyrd  that  every  man  must  dree  has 
whirled  all  material  things  away  and  has  left  but  a  wreck 
behind.  And  in  The  Wanderer  also  we  see  the  baleful  forces 
of  nature  and  fate  at  work  as  they  appeared  to  pagan  eyes: 

1  Stopford  Brooke's  version. 


National  Strife  5 

See  the  storms  are  lashing  on  the  stony  ramparts; 
Sweeping  down,  the  snow-drift  shuts  up  fast  the  earth — 
Terror  of  the  winter  when  it  cometh  wan ! 
Darkens  then  the  dusk  of  night,  driving  from  the  nor'rard 
Heavy  drift  of  hail  for  the  harm  of  heroes. 

All  is  full  of  trouble,  all  this  realm  of  earth! 

Doom  of  weirds  is  changing  all  the  world  below  the  skies ; 

Here  our  foe  is  fleeting,  here  the  friend  is  fleeting, 

Fleeting  here  is  man,  fleeting  is  the  woman. 

All  the  earth's  foundation  is  an  idle  thing  become.' 

The  lighter  note  of  love,  of  which  we  have  a  faint  echo  in  The 
Husband's  Message,  is  rare  in  Old  English  poetry.  The  times 
in  which  these  poems  were  written  were  full  of  war  and  national 
struggle;  not  until  long  after  the  settlers  had  made  their  per- 
manent home  in  the  new  land  does  the  poet  turn  to  the  quieter 
aspects  of  nature  or  celebrate  less  strenuous  deeds. 

We  can  only  use  comparative  terms,  however,  in  speaking 
of  the  peaceful  years.  Apart  from  the  civil  struggles  of  the 
English  in  their  new  home,  only  two  hundred  years  elapsed 
after  St.  Augustine's  conversion  of  Kent  before  the  Danes 
began  to  arrive  and,  in  the  centuries  that  followed,  the  language 
of  lamentation  and  woe  that  Gildas  had  used  in  connection 
with  the  struggle  between  Briton  and  Saxon  was  echoed  in  the 
writings  of  Alcuin  when  Lindisfame  was  burned,  in  the  homilies 
of  Wulfstan  and  in  the  pages  of  the  Chronicle.  Yet  in  the  years 
that  had  passed  England  had  risen  to  literary  pre-eminence 
in  Europe.  She  took  kindly  to  the  Latin  and  Greek  culture 
brought  her  in  the  seventh  century  by  the  Asian  Theodore  and 
the  African  Hadrian,  scholars  learned  in  worldly,  as  well  as  in 
divine,  lore,  who  "made  this  island,  once  the  nurse  of  tyrants, 
the  constant  home  of  philosophy."^  The  love  of  letters  had 
been  fostered  in  the  north  by  English  scholars;  by  Bede's 
teacher,  Benedict  Biscop,  foremost  of  all,  who  founded  the 
monasteries  of  Jarrow  and  Wearmouth,  enriched  them  with 
books  collected  by  himself  and,  in  his  last  days,  prayed  his 
pupils  to  have  a  care  over  his  library.  Bede's  disciple  was 
Egbert  of  York,  the  founder  of  its  school  and  the  decorator  of  its 
churches,  and  Alcuin  obtained  his  education  in  the  cloister 
school  of  his  native  city.  , 

>  Stopford  Brooke's  version.  2  William  of  Malmesbury,  i,  12. 


6  The  Beginnings 

The  seven  liberal  arts  of  the  trivium  (grammar,  logic,  rhet- 
oric) and  the  quadrivium  (astronomy,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
music)  were  so  ably  taught  and  so  admirably  assimilated  in  the 
monastic  schools  that,  when  Alcuin  forsook  York  for  Paris  to 
aid  Charles  the  Great  in  his  revival  of  letters,  he  appealed  for 
leave  to  send  French  lads  to  bring  back  " flowers  of  Britain"  to 
Tours,  from  the  "garden  of  Paradise"  in  York,  a  "garden" 
described  by  him  in  often  quoted  lines.' 

There  came  an  end  to  all  this  when  "the  Danish  terror" 
made  a  waste  from  the  Humber  to  the  Tyne.  "  Northumbria 
had  aided  Rome  and  Charles  the  Great  in  the  service  of  letters 
while  the  rest  of  Europe,  save  Ireland,  had  little  to  show,  and 
now  men  were  too  busy  fighting  for  home  and  freedom  to  think 
of  letters.  It  was  not  until  the  days  of  Alfred  that  the  tide 
began  again  to  turn  from  continental  to  English  shores,  becom- 
ing a  flood-tide  when  the  second  invasion  of  Northmen  added  a 
Norman  strain  to  English  blood. 

The  literature  of  the  beginnings  in  England,  therefore, 
appears  to  be  the  literature  of  its  successive  conquerors :  Eng- 
lish ousting  Briton,  Christian  suppressing  Pagan,  Norman  over- 
ruling English.  For  a  time,  the  works  of  Englishmen  have  to 
be  sought  in  Latin ;  for  certain  periods  of  civil  struggle,  of  defeat, 
of  serfdom,  they  cannot  be  found  at  all.  But  the  literary 
spirit  revives,  having  assimilated  the  foreign  elements  and  con- 
quered the  conquerors.  The  "natural  magic"  of  the  Celtic 
mind,  the  Christian  spirit  which  brought  Greece  and  Rome  in 
its  train  and  "the  matter  of  France"  have  all  three  become 
part  of  the  Englishman's  intellectual  heritage. 

1  Poema  de  Pontificibus  et  Sanctis  Ecclesiae  Eboracensis. 


CHAPTER  II 

Runes  and  Manuscripts 

WHEN  the  English  still  lived  in  their  continental  homes 
they  shared  with  the  neighbouring  kindred  tribes  an 
alphabet  which  may  well  be  described  as  the  national 
Germanic  alphabet,  since  there  is  evidence  that  it  was  used 
throughout  the  Germanic  territory,  both  in  the  outposts  of 
Scandinavia  and  in  the  countries  watered  by  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube.  The  origin  of  this  early  script  is  obscure ;  some  writers 
hold  that  it  was  borrowed  from  the  Latin  alphabet,  whereas 
others  think  that  it  was  of  Greek  origin.  From  its  wide  use 
amongst  the  Germanic  tribes,  we  must,  perforce,  conclude  that 
it  was  of  considerable  antiquity,  at  all  events  older  than  the 
earliest  Scandinavian  inscriptions,  which,  in  all  probability,  go 
back  as  far  as  the  third  century  of  our  era.  That  it  was  used 
in  the  fourth  century  is  proved  since,  a.t  that  time,  Ulfilas,  bishop 
of  the  West  Goths,  had  borrowed  from  it  the  signs  of  u  and  o  for 
his  newly-constructed  alphabet.  Moreover,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  Goths  must  have  brought  the  knowledge  of  it 
from  their  early  homes  in  the  north  before  the  great  wave  of 
the  Hunnish  invasion  swept  them  away  from  kith  and  kindred, 
finally  setting  them  down  on  the  shores  of  the  Danube  and  the 
Black  Sea. 

The  name  of  these  early  Germanic  characters  seems  also  to 
have  been  the  same  amongst  all  the  tribes.  Its  Old  English 
form,  run,  differs  little  from  the  corresponding  early  German 
or  Scandinavian  forms,  and  the  meaning  of  the  word  (mystery, 
secret,  secret  counsel)  seems  also  widely  spread.  This  word 
lived  on  through  Middle  English  times,  and  a  derivative  runian 
appears  in  Shakespeare  as  roun  or  round  (a  form  still  retained 
in  the  expression  "  to  round  in  one's  ear") .     The  separate  letters 


8  Runes  and  Manuscripts 

were  known  as  rtinstafas  and  the  interpretation  of  theni  as 
rddan,  which  in  modern  English  still  lives  on  in  the  expression 
"to  read  a  riddle." 

The  runes  were,  in  all  probability,  originally  carved  in  wood, 
and  sometimes  filled  in  with  red  paint  to  make  them  more  dis- 
tinct. The  technical  term  for  this  cutting  or  engraving  is,  in 
Old  English,  writan,  which,  in  its  transferred  meaning  of  "to 
write,"  has  survived  to  the  present  day.  The  wood  was  fash- 
ioned into  tablets  or  staves,  as  we  learn  from  the  well-known 
lines  of  Venantius  Fortunatus,  a  writer  of  the  sixth  century 
who  refers^  to  the  barbaric  rune  as  being  painted  on  tablets  of 
ashwood  or  smooth  sticks.  Such  a  tablet  was  originally  called 
hSc  (a  tablet  of  beechwood) ,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the  ances- 
tor, in  a  double  sense,  of  the  modern  word  "book."  Other 
materials  used  were  metal,  principally  in  the  form  of  weapons, 
coins,  rings  and  other  ornaments,  household  and  other  imple- 
ments; drinking-horns  were  often  adorned  with  runic  inscrip- 
tions, and  runes  have  also  been  found  on  smaller  objects  of  horn 
and  bone.  Moreover,  in  England  and  Scandinavia  there  occur 
runic  inscriptions  on  stone  monuments,  and  there  are  also  some 
which  have  been  hewn  out  of  rocks.  Parchment  seems  to  have 
been  introduced  at  a  late  period,  and,  of  the  few  manuscripts 
remaining  entirely  written  in  runes,  none  go  back  further  than 
the  thirteenth  century. 

There  is  considerable  uncertainty  as  to  the  earliest  purpose 
of  the  runes,  whether  they  were  originally  used  as  real  charac- 
ters of  writing,  or,  as  the  name  suggests,  as  mystical  signs, 
bearers  of  potent  magic.  But,  since  the  power  and  force  of 
the  spoken  word  easily  pass  into  the  symbol  for  which  it  stands, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  the  latter  meaning  is  secondary,  the 
spell  becoming,  so  to  speak,  materialised  in  the  graven  letter, 
and,  even  in  this  form,  retaining  all  its  original  power  for  good 
or  evil.  For  the  earliest  Germanic  literature  abounds  in  proofs 
of  the  magic  nature  of  runes ;  from  the  Edda  poems  down  to  the 
latest  folk-songs  of  the  present  day  there  is  continuous  evidence 
of  their  mystic?  influence  over  mankind.  Runes  could  raise  the 
dead  from  their  graves ;  they  could  preserve  life  or  take  it,  they 
could  heal  the  sick  or  bring  on  lingering  disease ;  they  could  call 
forth  the  soft  rain  or  the  violent  hailstorm;  they  could  break 

>  Carm.  iii,  i8,  19. 


Use  of  Runes  9 

chains  and  shackles  or  bind  more  closely  than  bonds  or  fetters ; 
they  could  make  the  warrior  invincible  and  cause  his  sword  to 
inflict  none  but  mortal  wounds ;  they  could  produce  frenzy  and 
madness  or  defend  from  the  deceit  of  a  false  friend.  Their  ori- 
gin was,  moreover,  believed  to  be  divine,  since  Odin  is  repre- 
sented in  the  Edda  as  sacrificing  himself  in  order  to  learn  their 
use  and  hidden  wisdom.  Odin  was  also  the  greatest  "rune- 
master"  of  the  ancient  Gennanic  world,  and  Saxo  relates ^ 
how  the  god  sometimes  stooped  to  use  them  for  purposes  of 
personal  revenge.  A  cold-hearted  maiden  who  rejected  his 
suit  he  touched  with  a  piece  of  bark,  whereon  spells  were  writ- 
ten. This  made  her  mad;  but  according  to  Saxo,  it  was  "a 
gentle  revenge  to  take  for  all  the  insults  he  had  received." 
Saxo  also  relates^  a  gruesome  tale  how,  by  means  of  spells 
engraved  on  wood,  and  placed  under  the  tongue  of  a  dead  man, 
he  was  forced  to  utter  strains  terrible  to  hear,  and  to  reveal  the 
no  less  terrible  secrets  of  the  future.  In  the  Icelandic  Sagas, 
references  to  the  supernatural  power  of  the  runes  are  equally 
explicit.  In  the  Saga  of  Egill  Skallagrimsson,  who  lived  in  the 
tenth  century,  it  is  told  how  a  maiden's  illness  had  been  in- 
creased because  the  would-be  healer,  through  ignorance,  cut 
the  wrong  runes,  and  thus  endangered  her  life.  Egill  destroys 
the  spell  by  cutting  off  the  runes  and  buring  the  shavings  in  the 
fire;  he  then  slips  under  the  maiden's  pillow  the  staff  whereon 
he  had  cut  the  true  healing  runes.  Immediately  the  maiden 
recovers. 

Side  by  side  with  the  early  magic  use  of  runes  there  is  also 
clear  evidence  that,  at  an  earlier  period,  they  served  as  a  means 
of  communication,  secret  or  otherwise.  Saxo  relates,  in  this 
respect,^  how  Amlethus  (Hamlet)  travelled  to  England  accom- 
panied by  two  retainers,  to  whom  was  entrusted  a  secret  letter 
graven  on  wood,  which,  as  Saxo  remarks,  was  a  kind  of  writing- 
material  frequently  used  in  olden  times.  In  the  Egilssaga 
mentioned  above,  Egill  Skallagrmisson's  daughter  ThorgerSr 
is  reported  to  have  engraved  on  the  nlnakefli  or  "runic  staff" 
the  beautiful  poem  Stmatorrek,  in  which  her  aged  father  laments 
the  death  of  his  son,  the  last  of  his  race. 

These  few  instances,  taken  from  amongst  a  great  number^ 
prove  that  runes  played  an  important  part  in  the  thoughts  and 

>  Ed.  Holder,  p.  79.  2  Ed.  Holder,  p.  22.         ^Bd.  Holder,  p.  92. 


lo  Runes  and  Manuscripts 

lives  of  the  various  Germanic  tribes.  The  greater  number  of 
runic  inscriptions  which  have  come  down  to  our  times,  and  by 
far  the  most  important,  are  those  engraved  on  stone  monuments. 
Some  of  these  merely  bear  the  name  of  a  fallen  warrior,  while 
others  commemorate  his  exploits,  his  death,  or  his  life  as  a 
whole.  These  inscriptions  on  stones  and  rocks  occur  only  in 
England  and  Scandinavia,  from  which  fact  we  may,  perhaps, 
infer  that  this  use  of  runes  was  a  comparatively  late  develop- 
ment. Some  of  the  very  earliest  extant  inscriptions  may  be 
regarded  as  English,  since  they  are  found  either  within  Angeln, 
the  ancient  home  of  the  nation — for  instance,  those  of  Tors- 
bjaerg, — or  not  far  from  that  district. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  clear  that  the  English,  on 
their  arrival  in  this  island,  must  have  been  conversant  with 
their  national  alphabet,  and  the  various  uses  thereof.  It  may 
be  worth  while  to  examine  somewhat  more  closely  its  original 
form  and  the  changes  which  it  underwent  after  the  m^'gration. 
In  its  early  Germanic  form  the  runic  alphabet  consisted  of 
twenty-four  signs,  usually  arranged  in  three  sets  of  eight  which, 
from  their  respective  initial  letters,  bore  in  Old  Norse  the 
names  of  Freyr,  Hagall  and  Tyr.  The  alphabet  itself  is  gener- 
ally known  as  the  fujjark  from  the  first  six  of  its  letters.  Each 
rune  had  a  name  of  its  own,  and  a  well-defined  place  in  the 
alphabet.  The  order  is  specifically  Germanic,  and  can  be 
ascertained  from  old  alphabets  found  on  a  gold  coin  at  Vadstena 
in  Sweden,  and  on  a  silver-gilt  clasp  dug  up  at  Charnay  in 
Burgundy.  After  the  migration  and  subsequent  isolation  of 
the  English,  it  became  necessary,  in  course  of  time,  to  modify 
the  early  alphabet  and  to  make  it  more  conformable  with  the 
changing  sounds  of  the  language.  Four  new  signs  were  added, 
and  some  of  the  older  ones  modified  in  order  to  represent  the 
altered  value  of  the  sounds.  Thus  there  arose  a  specifically 
Old  English  alphabet,  of  which  not  less  than  three  specimens 
have  been  preserved.  One  of  these  is  on  a  small  sword  found  in 
the  Thames  and  now  in  the  British  Museum;  another  is  con- 
tained in  the  Salzburg  manuscript  140  of  the  tenth  century,  now 
at  Vienna ;  the  third  occurs  in  an  Old  English  runic  song.  The 
last  two,  moreover,  present  the  names  of  the  runes  in  their  Old 
English  form.  Apart  from  the  standard  English  type  found  in 
the  above-mentioned  three  alphabets,  a  local  Norwegian  van- 


Use  of  Runes  n 

ety,  of  a  far  simpler  character,  was  current  in  the  Isle  of  Man, 
as  appears  from  certain  Norse  inscriptions  there,  dating  from 
the  latter  half  of  the  eleventh  century. 

It  is,  however,  difficult  to  determine  in  what  manner  and  to 
what  extent  runes  were  used  by  the  English  settlers,  for  here 
the  evidence  is  by  no  means  as  abundant  and  explicit  as  in  the 
far  north.  Christianity  was  introduced  into  England  at  an 
early  period,  centuries  before  it  was  brought  to  distant  Scandi- 
navia, and  the  new  religion  laboured,  and  laboured  successfully, 
to  eradicate  all  traces  of  practices  and  beliefs  that  smacked  of 
the  devil,  with  which  potentate  the  heathen  gods  soon  came  to  be 
identified.  Nevertheless,  we  have  some  evidence,  which,  despite 
its  scantiness,  speaks  eloquently  of  the  tenacity  of  old  beliefs 
and  the  slow  lingering  of  superstition.  Bede  furnishes  us  with 
a  striking  proof  that  the  English,  at  a  comparatively  late  date, 
believed  in  the  magic  properties  of  runes.  In  his  Historia 
Ecdesiastica  (iv,  22)  he  relates  the  fate  of  a  nobleman  called 
Imma,  who  was  made  a  prisoner  in  the  battle  between  Ecgfrith, 
king  of  Northumbria,  and  Aethelred,  king  of  Mercia,  a.d. 
679,  and  whose  fetters  fell  off  whenever  his  brother,  who  thought 
him  dead,  celebrated  mass  for  the  release  of  his  soul.  His 
captor,  however,  who  knew  nothing  about  the  prayers,  won- 
dered greatly,  and  inquired  whether  the  prisoner  had  on  him 
litterae  solutoriae,  that  is,  letters  which  had  the  power  of  loosen- 
ing bonds.'  Again,  in  Beowulf  (1.  591),  a  person  who  broached 
a  theme  of  contention  is  said  to  "unbind  the  runes  of  war." 
In  the  poem  called  Daniel  (1.  741),  the  mysterious  and  terrible 
writing  on  the  wall  of  Belshazzar's  palace  is  described  as  a  rune. 
In  the  Dialogue  of  Salomon  and  Saturn'^  there  is  a  curious  trav- 
esty of  an  old  heathen  spell.  In  treating  of  the  powers  and 
virtues  of  the  Pater  Noster,  the  poet  gradually  inserts  all  the 
runes  that  serve  to  make  up  the  prayer,  each,  however,  being 
accompanied  by  the  corresponding  Latin  capital  letter.  There- 
upon he  advises  every  man  to  sing  the  Pater  Noster  before  draw- 
ing his  sword  against  a  hostile  band  of  men,  and  also  to  put  the 
fiends  to  flight  by  means  of  God's  word;  otherwise  they  will 
stay  his  hand  when  he  has  to  defend  his  life,  and  bewitch  his 
weapon  by  cutting  on  it  fatal  letters  and  death  signs.     We 

'  The  Old  English  version  renders  this  by  alysendlecan  nine,   "loosening 
runes." 

2  Ed.  KemHe,  pp.  14  and  qq. 


12  Runes  and  Manuscripts 

could  scarcely  wish  for  a  better  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
Christianity  combated  the  old  beliefs,  substituting  the  Pater 
Noster  for  the  ancient  heathen  war-spell,  reading  a  new  meaning 
into  the  old  rites  and  shifting  to  fiends  and  devils  the  power  of 
making  runes  of  victory  or  of  death,  a  power  formerly  in  the 
hands  of  pagan  gods. 

When  used  as  ordinary  writing  characters,  without  any  taint 
of  magic,  runes  appear  to  have  met  with  more  tolerant  treat- 
ment. The  earliest  inscriptions  extant  in  this  country  consist 
mainly  of  proper  names,  in  most  cases  those  of  the  owners  of  the 
engraved  article.  The  Thames  sword,  for  instance,  bears,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  runic  alphabet,  the  name  of  its  owner,  Beagnop. 
Again,  Beowulf  is  represented  as  finding  in  Grendel's  cave  a 
sword  of  ancient  workmanship,  with  rune-staves  on  the  hilt, 
giving  the  name  of  the  warrior  for  whom  the  sword  had  first 
been  made.  Similarly,  an  eighth  century  ring  bears,  partly  in 
runic,  partly  in  Roman,  characters,  the  legend  "^|;red  owns 
me,  Eanred  engraved  me."  There  are  also  references  in  Old 
English  literature  to  the  use  of  runes  as  a  means  of  communica- 
tion. We  are  reminded  of  the  runa-kefli  of  the  Icelandic  sagas 
on  reading  the  little  poem  called  The  Husband's  Message  (see  p. 
42),  where  a  staff,  inscribed  with  runes,  is  supposed  to  convey 
to  a  wife  the  message  of  her  lord,  bidding  her  cross  the  sea  in 
search  of  the  distant  country  where  he  had  found  gold  and  land. 
But  still  more  important  are  those  inscriptions  which  have 
actually  survived  and  which  are  mainly  found  on  stone  monu- 
ments. They  are  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  north, 
and  the  greater  number  of  them  belong  to  the  seventh  and 
eighth  centuries,  for  absolutely  no  inscriptions  have  surv^ived 
from  the  first  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  subsequent  to  the 
English  invasion.  These  inscriptions  are  almost  all  due  to 
Christian  influence.  Chief  among  these  monuments,  so  far  as 
English  literature  is  concerned,  are  the  Ruthwell  Cross  in  Dum- 
friesshire, possibly  dating  back  to  the  eighth  century,  ^  on  which 
are  inscribed  extracts  from  The  Dream  of  the  Rood,  and  the 
Bewcastle  Column  in  Cumberland,  probably  erected  to  the 
memory  of  Alchfrith,  son  of  the  Northumbrian  king  Oswy 
(642-670). 

Runic  inscriptions  have,  moreover,  been  discovered  on  coins 

>  But  see  A..  S.  Cook,  The  Dream  of  the  Rood,  Oxford,  1905,  i;p.  ix  ff. 


Use  of  Runes  13 

and  various  other  objects,  the  most  important  being  the  beauti- 
ful Clermont  or  Franks  casket.  The  top  and  three  of  the  sides 
are  now  in  the  British  Museum,  the  fourth  side  is  in  the  Museo 
Nazionale  at  Florence.  The  casket  is  made  of  whalebone,  and 
the  scenes  carved  on  it  represent  an  episode  from  the  Weland- 
saga,  the  adoration  of  the  Magi,  Romulus  and  Remus  nursed 
by  the  she-wolf  and,  lastly,  a  fight  between  Titus  and  the  Jews. 
The  carving  on  the  Florence  fragment  is  still  unexplained. 
The  legends  engraved  around  these  episodes  are  intended  to 
represent  the  capture  of  the  whale  and  to  elucidate  the  carving. 
On  Hnguistic  grounds  it  has  been  thought  probable  that  the 
casket  was  made  in  Northumbria  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
century.' 

In  several  Old  English  MSS.  runes  are  found  in  isolated 
cases,  for  instance  in  Beowulf,  and  in  the  Durham  Ritual.  In 
the  riddles  of  the  Exeter  Book  the  occasional  introduction  of 
runes'  sometimes  helps  to  solve  the  mystery  of  the  enigma,  and 
sometimes  increases  the  obscurity  of  the  passage.  Occasionally 
a  poet  or  scribe  will  record  his  name  by  means  of  a  runic  acros- 
tic introduced  into  the  text.  Thus,  the  poems  Crist,  Juliana, 
Elene  and  the  Vercelli  fragment  bear  the  runic  signature  of 
their  author,  Cynewulf . 

Runes  went  out  of  use  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries. 
Their  place  had,  however,  been  usurped  long  before  that  period 
by  the  Roman  alphabet,  which  the  English  received  from  the 
early  Irish  missionaries.  The  advent  of  Christianity  and  the 
beginnings  of  English  literature  are  intimately  connected,  for 
the  missionary  and  the  Roman  alphabet  travelled  together, 
and  it  was  owing  to  the  Christian  scribe  that  the  songs  and 
sagas,  the  laws  and  customs,  the  faith  and  the  proverbial  wis- 
dom of  our  forefathers,  were  first  recorded  and  preserved.  It  is, 
indeed,  difficult  to  reaHse  that,  before  the  conversion  of  the 
English  to  Christianity,  during  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries, 
the  whole,  or,  at  all  events,  by  far  the  greater  part,  of  the  intel- 
lectual wealth  of  the  nation  was  to  be  sought  on  the  lips  of  the 
people,  or  in  the  retentive  memory  of  the  individual,  and  was 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation  by  means  of  song 
and  recitation.  Caesar  relates^  how  this  was  the  case  in  Gaul, 
.  where  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  the  Druids,  their  religion 

'  Napier,  English  Misc.,  p.  380.         2  De  Bella  Gallico,  vi,  14. 


14  Runes  and  Manuscripts 

and  their  laws,  were  transmitted  by  oral  tradition  alone,  since 
they  were  forbidden  to  put  any  of  their  lore  into  writing,, 
although,  for  other  purposes,  the  Greek  alphabet  was  used. 
What  wonder  if  the  young  Gauls  who  served  their  appren- 
ticeship to  the  Druids  had,  as  Caesar  says,  to  learn  "a  great 
number  of  verses,"  and  often  to  stay  as  long  as  twenty 
years  before  they  had  exhausted  their  instructors'  store  of 
learning. 

Before  entering,  however,  on  the  history  of  the  Irish  alpha- 
bet in  England,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  an  even  earlier 
attempt  had  been  made  to  introduce  Roman  characters  among 
the  English.  This  was  due  to  the  efforts  of  Augustine  and 
his  missionaries,  who  established  a  school  of  handwriting  in  the 
south  of  England,  with  Canterbury  as  a  probable  centre.  A 
Psalter  of  about  a.d.  700,  now  in  the  Cottonian  collection  of  the 
British  Museum,  and  a  few  early  copies  of  charters  constitute, 
however,  the  only  evidence  of  its  existence  that  survives. 
From  these  we  learn  that  the  type  of  alphabet  taught  was  the 
Roman  rustic  capital  though  of  a  somewhat  modified  local 
character.  This  paucity  of  records  makes  it  seem  likely  that 
the  school  of  the  Roman  missionaries  had  but  a  brief  period  of 
existence,  and  wholly  failed  to  influence  the  native  hand. 

Not  so,  however,  with  the  Irish  school  of  writing  in  the 
north. 

The  Irish  alphabet  was  founded  on  the  Roman  half-uncial 
hand,  manuscripts  of  this  type  having  been  brought  over  to 
Ireland  by  missionaries,  perhaps  during  the  fifth  century. 
Owing  to  the  isolated  position  of  the  island  and  the  consequent 
absence  of  extraneous  influence,  a  strongly  characteristic  na- 
tional hand  developed,  which  ran  its  uninterrupted  course 
down  to  the  late  Middle  Ages.  This  hand  was  at  first  round  in 
character  and  of  great  clearness,  beauty  and  precision ;  but,  at 
an  early  period,  a  modified,  pointed  variety  of  a  minuscule 
type  developed  out  of  it,  used  for  quicker  and  less  ornamental 
writing. 

In  the  seventh  century  Northumbria  was  Christianised  by 
Irish  missionaries,  who  founded  monasteries  and  religious  set- 
tlements throughout  the  north.  What,  then,  more  natural 
than  that  these  zealous  preachers  of  the  Word  should  teach  their 
disciples  not  only  the  Word  itself,  but  also  how  to  write  it 


Development  of  English  Writing  15 

down  in  characters  pleasing  to  the  Ahnighty,  and  not  in  rude 
and  uncouth  signs  which  conveyed  all  the  power  and  magic  of 
the  heathen  gods?  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the  English  of 
the  north  learnt  the  exquisite  penmanship  of  the  Irish,  and 
proved  themselves  such  apt  pupils  that  they  soon  equalled 
their  former  masters.  In  fact,  the  earliest  specimens  of  the 
Northumbrian  hand  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  their 
Irish  models. 

In  course  of  time,  moreover,  the  English  threw  off  the  con- 
ventions and  restraints  which  fettered  the  Irish  hand  and 
developed  a  truly  national  hand,  which  spread  throughout 
England,  and  which,  in  grace  of  outline  and  correctness  of 
stroke,  even  surpassed  its  prototype. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  English  adopted  both  the 
round  and  pointed  varieties  of  their  Irish  teachers.  One  of  the 
earliest  and  most  beautiful  examples  of  the  former  is  The  Book 
of  Durham  or  The  Lindisfarne  Gospels,^  written  about  a.d.  700 
by  Eadfrith,  bishop  of  Lindisfarne.  And,  as  a  specimen  of  the 
latter,  may  be  mentioned  a  fine  copy  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical 
History  in  the  University  Library  of  Cambridge,  written  not 
long  after  730,  which  possesses  an  additional  interest  as  pre- 
serving one  of  the  earliest  pieces  of  poetry  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, The  Hymn  of  Caedmon,  in  the  original  Northumbrian 
dialect.  The  pointed  hand  branched  off  into  a  number  of 
local  varieties  and  was  extensively  used  down  to  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, when  it  became  influenced  by  the  French  or  Carolingian 
minuscule.  Towards  the  end  of  the  century  all  Latin  MSS. 
were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  written  in  foreign  characters,  whereas 
the  English  hand  came  to  be  exclusively  used  for  writing  in  the 
vernacular.  For  instance,  a  Latin  charter  would  have  the  body 
of  the  text  in  the  French  minuscule,  but  the  English  descrip- 
tions or  boundaries  of  the  property  to  be  conveyed  would  be 
written  in  the  native  hand. 

Afiter  the  Conquest,  the  native  hand  gradually  disappeared, 
the  oikly  traces  of  it  left  being  the  adoption  by  the  foreign 
alphabets  of  the  symbols  p,  5,  }  (5)  to  express  the  peculiarly 
English  sounds  for  which  they  stood.  The  rune  p,  however, 
fell  into  disuse  about  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
its  place  having  been  taken  by  uu  (vv)  or  w;  while  S  (th)  occurs 

'Brit.  Mus.  Cotton  Nero,  D.  4. 


1/ 


i6  Runes  and  Manuscripts 

occasionally  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  same  centur3^  Of  far 
superior  vitality  were  ]>  and  ?,  the  former  bearing  a  charmed 
life  throughout  Middle  English  times,  though,  in  the  fifteenth 
century  and  later,  \>  often  appeared  in  the  degenerated  form  of 
y,  while  3  was  retained  in  order  to  represent  spirant  sounds, 
afterwards  denoted  by  y  or  gh. 

During  the  late  twelfth,  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies the  history  of  English  handwriting  was  practically  that 
of  the  various  Latin  hands  of  the  French  school.  The  fifteenth 
century  finally  witnessed  the  dissolution  of  the  medieval  book- 
hand  of  the  minuscule  type,  the  many  varieties  of  it  being 
apparent  in  the  types  used  by  the  early  printers.  The  legal  or 
charter-hand,  introduced  with  the  Conquest,  was,  however,  not 
superseded  by  the  printing-presses,  but  ran  an  undisturbed 
though  ever  varying  course  down  to  the  seventeenth  century, 
when  its  place  was  taken  by  the  modern  current  hand,  fash- 
ioned on  Italian  models.  A  late  variety  still  lingers  on,  how- 
ever, in  the  so-called  chancery-hand  seen  in  the  engraved 
writing  of  enrolments  and  patents. 

Turning  to  the  materials  used  for  writing  in  medieval  Eng- 
land, we  gain  at  once  a  connecting  link  with  the  runic  alphabet, 
since  the  wooden  tablet,  the  boc,  again  appears,  though  in  a 
somewhat  different  fashion.  A  thin  coating  of  wax  was  now 
spread  over  the  surface,  and  the  writing  was  scratched  on  it 
with  a  pointed  instrument  of  metal  or  bone  which,  in  Old  Eng- 
lish, was  known  as  graef,  and  in  the  later  centuries  by  the 
French  term  poyntel.  The  use  of  these  tablets  was  widely, 
spread  in  the  Middle  Ages;  they  served  for  the  school-boy's 
exercises  and  for  bills  and  memoranda  of  every  description,  for 
short  letters  and  rough  copies — for  anything  that  was  after- 
wards to  be  copied  out,  more  carefully,  on  vellum.  In  German 
illuminated  MSS.  poets  are  represented  as  writing  their  songs 
and  poems  on  waxen  tablets,  and,  as  early  as  the  sixth  century, 
The  Rule  of  St.  Benet  makes  provision  for  the  distribution  of 
tablets  and  styles  to  monks.  There  is,  also,  evidence  of  the 
use  of  these  tablets  by  Irish  monks,  w^ho,  it  may  be  supposed, 
would  introduce  them  to  their  English  pupils.  And,  conse- 
quently, we  find  that  Aldhelm,  who  died  in  709,  writes  a  riddle 
of  which  the  answer  is  "tablet" — a  fact  which  presupposes  a 
knowledge  of  the  existence  of  tablets  among  his  contempora- 


Materials  for  Writing  17 

rics.  Again,  in  Ethchvold's  Benedictionalc  of  the  tenth  century, 
Zacharias  {Luke,  i,  3)  is  represented  as  writing  on  a  waxen 
tablet.  1 

In  the  twelfth  century  we  learn  concerning  Anselm,  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  (fi  109),  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of  mak- 
ing the  first  sketch  of  his  works  on  waxen  tablets;  and,  in  The 
Canterbury  Tales,  Chaucer  relates  how  the  summoner's  "fel- 
low" had  "a  pair  of  tables  all  of  ivory,  and  a  poyntel  ypol- 
ished  fetisly." 

Far  more  important,  practical  and  durable  as  writing  mate- 
rial, however,  was  parchment  or  vellum,  the  use  of  which  pre- 
vailed throughout  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Old  English  name  for 
this  was  bdc-fel,  literally  "book-skin,"  replaced  in  Middle  Eng- 
lish by  the  French  terms  parchment  and  velin  (vellum) .  These 
terms,  originally,  were  not  interchangeable,  vellum  being,  as  its 
name  indicates,  prepared  from  calf-skins,  parchment  from 
sheep-skins.  2 

At  first,  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  monasteries  had  to 
prepare  their  own  parchment,  either  by  the  help  of  the  monks 
themselves  or  of  laymen  engaged  for  the  purpose.  Later,  how- 
ever, the  parchment-makers  took  their  place  as  ordinary  crafts- 
men, and  supplied  religious  and  other  houses  with  the  necessary 
material.  Thus  we  find  that,  in  the  year  1300,  Ely  bought  five 
dozen  parchments  and  as  many  vellums,  and,  about  half  a  cen- 
tury later,  no  less  than  seventy  and  thirty  dozen  respectively 
in  order  to  supply  the  want  of  writing  material  for  a  few  years 
only.  Vellum  was,  at  times,  magnificently  coloured,  the  text 
being,  in  such  cases,  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold  or  silver.  The 
most  famous  example  is  the  Codex  argenteus  at  Upsala.  Arch- 
bishop Wilfrid  of  York  (664-709)  is  said  to  have  possessed  the 
four  Gospels  written  on  purple  vellum  in  letters  of  purest  gold, 
a  fact  which  his  biographer  records  as  little  short  of  the  marvel- 
lous. In  the  British  Museum  there  remains  to  this  day  an  Old 
English  MS.  of  the  Gospels  the  first  leaves  of  which  are  written 
in  golden  letters  on  purple  vellum.^ 

Apart  from  these  editions  de  luxe,  which   naturally  must 

^  Archaeol.  xxiv,  pi.  27. 

2  From  Hamlet,  v,  i,  it  appears,  however,  as  if  Shakespeare  was  unaware  of 
this  difference:  "Is  not  parchment  made  of  sheep-skins?" — "Ay,  my  lord, 
and  of  calf-skins  too." 

3  Royal,  I,  E.  6. 

VOL.    I. 2. 


i8  Runes  and  Manuscripts 

have  been  of  enormous  cost,  ordinary  working  parchment  was  a 
very  expensive  writing  material,  and  it  is  small  wonder  if,  on 
that  account,  it  gradually  had  to  give  way  before  a  new  and  less 
costly  material.  It  appears  that,  from  times  immemorial,  the 
manufacture  of  paper  from  Hnen  rags  and  hemp  was  known  to 
the  Chinese,  who,  apparently,  taught  their  art  to  the  Arabs, 
since  paper  was  exported  by  that  nation  at  an  early  date.  In 
the  twelfth  century  paper  was  known  in  Spain  and  Italy,  and 
thence  it  spread  slowly  northwards,  though  it  did  not  come 
into  more  general  use  until  the  fourteenth  century.  In  the 
fifteenth  century  paper  manuscripts  were  very  frequent  in 
England,  as  can  be  assumed  from  the  great  number  still  remain- 
ing in  public  and  private  libraries. 

For  writing,  both  on  parchment  and  on  paper,  the  quill 
was  used,  known  in  Old  English  times  as  fe'Ser,  in  Middle  English 
by  the  French  term  penne.  The  existence  of  the  quill  as  an 
implement  of  writing  is  proved  by  one  of  the  oldest  Irish  MSS., 
where  St.  John  the  Evangelist  is  represented  holding  a  quill  in 
his  hand.  Again,  Aldhelm  has  a  riddle  on  penna,  in  the  same 
way  as  he  had  one  on  the  tablet.  Other  necessary  implements 
for  writing  and  preparing  a  MS.  were  a  lead  for  ruling  margins 
and  Hnes,  a  ruler,  a  pair  of  compasses,  scissors,  a  puncher,  an 
awl,  a  scraping-knife  and,  last  but  not  least,  ink,  which  was 
usually  kept  in  a  horn,  either  held  in  the  hand  by  the  scribe, 
or  placed  in  a  specially  provided  hole  in  his  desk.  In  Old 
English  times  it  was  known,  from  its  colour,  as  hlaec,  but,  after 
the  Conquest,  the  French  term  enque,  our  modem  English  ink, 
was  adopted.  The  terms  home  and  ink-home  are  both  found 
in  old  glossaries. 

When  the  body  of  the  text  was  finally  ready,  the  sheets 
were  passed  to  the  corrector,  who  filled  the  office  of  the  modem 
proof-reader,  and  from  him  to  the  rubricator,  w^ho  inserted,  in 
more  or  less  elaborate  designs,  and  in  striking  colours,  the 
rubrics  and  initials  for  which  space  had  been  left  by  the  scribe. 
The  pieces  of  parchment  were  then  passed  to  the  binder,  who, 
as  a  rule,  placed  four  on  each  other  and  then  folded  them,  the 
result  being  a  quire  of  eight  leaves  or  sixteen  pages.  The  bind- 
ing was  generally  strong  and  solid  in  character:  leather  was 
used  for  the  back  and  wooden  boards  for  the  sides,  which  were 
usually  covered  with  parchment  of  leather  or  velvet.    Thus  was 


Manuscripts  and  Scribes  19 

established  the  form  and  fashion  of  the  book  as  we  know  it, 
whether  written  or  printed. 

Besides  the  book-form,  parchment  was  also  made  up  into 
rolls,  which  were  especially  used  for  chronological  writings  and 
deeds  of  various  kinds.  ^ 

The  men  who  wrote  both  roll  and  book,  and  to  whose 
patience  and  devotion  we  owe  so  much  of  our  knowledge  of  the 
times  gone  by,  were,  at  first,  the  monks  themselves;  it  being 
held  that  copying,  especially  of  devotional  books,  was  a  work 
pleasing  to  God  and  one  of  the  best  possible  ways  in  which 
men,  separated  from  the  world,  could  labour. 

Gradually,  however,  there  grew  up  a  professional  class  of 
scribes,  whose  services  could  be  hired  for  money,  and  who  can 
be  proved  to  have  been  employed  at  an  early  period  in  the  mon- 
asteries of  England  and  abroad.  Nuns  were  also  well  versed  in 
writing.  Moreover,  where  schools  were  attached  to  monas- 
teries the  alumni  were  early  pressed  into  service,  at  all  events 
to  copy  out  books  needed  for  their  own  instruction. 

The  cloister  was  the  centre  of  life  in  the  monastery,  and  in 
the  cloister  was  the  workshop  of  the  patient  scribe.  It  is  hard 
to  realise  that  the  fair  and  seemly  handwriting  of  these  manu- 
scripts was  executed  by  fingers  which,  on  winter  days,  when 
the  wind  howled  through  the  cloisters,  must  have  been  numbed 
by  the  icy  cold.  It  is  true  that,  occasionally,  little  carrells  or 
studies  in  the  recesses  of  the  windows  were  screened  off  from 
the  main  walk  of  the  cloister,  and  sometimes  a  small  room  or 
cell  would  be  partitioned  off  for  the  use  of  a  single  scribe.  This 
room  would  then  be  called  the  scriptorium,  but  it  is  unlikely 
that  any  save  the  oldest  or  most  learned  of  the  community  were 
afforded  this  luxury.  In  these  scriptoria  of  various  kinds  the 
earliest  annals  and  chronicles  in  the  English  language  were 
penned,  in  the  beautiful  and  painstaking  forms  in  which  we 
know  them. 

There  is  no  evidence  for  the  existence  of  buildings  specially 
set  apart  for  libraries  until  the  later  Middle  Ages.  Books  were 
stored  in  presses,  placed  either  in  the  church  or  in  convenient 
places  within  the  monastic  buildings.  These  presses  were  then 
added  to  as  need  arose,  or,  perhaps,  a  small  room  was  set  apart 
for  the  better  preserving  of  the  precious  volumes.     Books  were 

•  Cf.  the  term  "Master  of  the  Rolls." 


20  Runes  and  Manuscripts 

frequently  lost  through  the  widespread  system  of  lending  both 
to  private  persons  and  to  communities,  and,  though  bonds  were 
solemnly  entered  into  for  their  safe  return,  neither  anathema 
nor  heavy  pledges  seemed  sufficient  to  ensure  the  return  of  the 
volumes. 

But  all  losses  through  lending,  or  fire,  or  pillage,  were  as 
nothing  compared  with  the  utter  ruin  and  destruction  that 
overtook  the  literature  of  England,  as  represented  by  the  writ- 
ten remains  of  its  past,  when  the  monasteries  were  dissolved. 
By  what  remains  we  can  estimate  what  we  have  lost,  and  lost 
irrevocably;  but  the  full  significance  of  this  event  for  English 
literary  culture  will  be  discussed  in  a  later  chapter. 


CHAPTER  III 

Early  National  Poetry 

THE  poetry  of  the  Old  English  period  is  generally  grouped 
in  two  main  divisions,  national  and  Christian.  To  the  / 
former  are  assigned  those  poems  of  which  the  subjects 
are  drawn  from  English,  or  rather  Teutonic,  tradition  and  his- 
tory or  from  the  customs  and  conditions  of  English  life;  to 
the  latter  those  which  deal  with  Biblical  matter,  ecclesiastical 
traditions  and  religious  subjects  of  definitely  Christian  origin. 
The  line  of  demarcation  is  not,  of  course,  absolutely  fixed. 
Most  of  the  national  poems  in  their  present  form  contain  Chris- 
tian elements,  while  English  influence  often  makes  itself  felt  in 
the  presentation  of  Biblical  or  ecclesiastical  subjects.  But,  on 
the  whole,  the  division  is  a  satisfactory  one,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  there  are  a  certain  number  of  poems  as  to  the  classification 
of  which  some  doubt  may  be  entertained. 

We  are  concerned  here  only  w4th  the  earlier  national  poems. 
With  one  or  two  possible  exceptions  they  are  anonymous,  and 
we  have  no  means  of  assigning  to  them  with  certainty  even  an 
approximate  date.  There  can  be  little  doubt,  however,  that 
they  all  belong  to  times  anterior  to  the  unification  of  England 
under  King  Alfred  (a.d.  886).  The  later  national  poetry  does 
not  begin  until  the  reign  of  Aethelstan. 

With  regard  to  the  general  characteristics  of  these  poems 
one  or  two  preliminary  remarks  will  not  be  out  of  place.  First, 
there  is  some  reason  for  believing  that,  for  the  most  part,  they  / 
are  the  work  of  minstrels  rather  than  of  literary  men.  In  two 
cases,  W73sith  and  TJeor,  we  have  definite  statements  to  this 
effect,  and  from  Bede's  account  of  Caedmon  we  may  probably 
infer  that  the  early  Christian  poems  had  a  similar  origin.  In- 
deed, it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  any  of  the  poems  were  written 


22  Early  National  Poetry 

down  very  early.  Scarcely  any  of  the  MSS.  date  from  before 
the  tenth  century  and,  though  they  are  doubtless  copies,  they 
do  not  betray  traces  of  very  archaic  orthography.  Again,  it  is 
probable  that  the  authors  were  as  a  rule  attached  to  the  courts 
of  kings  or,  at  all  events,  to  the  retinues  of  persons  in  high  posi- 
tion. For  this  statement  also  we  have  no  positive  evidence 
except  in  the  cases  of  Widsith  and  Deor;  but  it  is  favoured  by 
the  tone  of  the'  poems.  Some  knowledge  of  music  and  recita- 
tion seems,  indeed,  to  have  prevailed  among  all  classes.  Just 
as  in  Beowulf  not  only  Hrothgar's  bard  but  even  the  king 
himself  is  said  to  have  taken  part  among  others  in  the  recitation 
of  stories  of  old  time,  so  Bede,  in  the  passage  mentioned 
above,  relates  how  the  harp  was  passed  around  at  a  gath- 
ering of  villagers,  each  one  of  whom  was  expected  to  produce 
a  song.  But  the  poems  which  survived,  especially  epic  poems, 
are  likely  to  have  been  the  work  of  professional  minstrels,  and 
such  persons  would  naturally  be  attracted  to  courts  by  the 
richer  rewards — both  in  gold  and  land — ^which  they  received 
for  their  services.  It  is  not  only  in  Old  English  poems  that 
professional  minstrels  are  mentioned.  From  Cassiodorus  {V aria- 
rum,  II,  40  f .)  we  learn  that  Clovis  begged  Theodric,  king  of  the 
Ostrogoths,  to  send  him  a  skilled  harpist.  Again,  Priscus,  in 
the  account  of  his  visit  to  Attila,^  describes  how,  at  the  evening 
feast,  two  men,  whom  probably  we  may  regard  as  professional 
minstrels,  came  forward  and  sang  of  the  king's  victories  and 
martial  deeds.  Some  of  the  warriors,  he  says,  had  their  fight- 
ing spirit  roused  by  the  melody,  while  others,  advanced  in  age, 
burst  into  tears,  lamenting  the  loss  of  their  strength — a  passage 
which  bears  rather  a  striking  resemblance  to  Beowulf's  account 
of  the  feast  in  Hrothgar's  hall. 

It  is  customary  to  classify  the  early  national  poems  in  two 
/  groups,  epic  and  elegiac.  The  former,  if  we  may  judge  from 
Beowulf,  ran  to  very  considerable  length,  while  all  the  extant 
specimens  of  the  latter  are  quite  short.  There  are,  however, 
one  or  two  poems  which  can  hardly  be  brought  under  either  of 
these  heads,  and  it  is  probably  due  to  accident  that  most  of  the 
shorter  poems  which  have  come  down  to  us  are  of  an  elegiac 
character. 

iK.  Miiller,  Fragmenta  Historicoruin  Graecorum,  iv,  p.  92. 


Teutonic  Epic  Poetry  23 

The  history  of  our  national  epic  poetry  is  rendered  obscure 
by  the  fact  that  there  is  Httle  elsewhere  with  which  it  may  be 
compared.  We  need  not  doubt  that  it  is  descended  ultimately 
from  the  songs  in  which  the  ancients  were  wont  to  celebrate 
deeds  of  famous  men,  such  as  Arminius  ^ ;  but,  regarding  the 
form  of  these  songs,  we  are  unfortunately  without  information. 
The  early  national  epic  poetry  of  Germany  is  represented  only 
by  a  fragment  of  67  lines,  while  the  national  poetry  of  the  north, 
rich  as  it  is,  contains  nothing  which  can  properly  be  called  epic. 
It  cannot,  therefore,  be  determined  with  certainty,  whether  the 
epos  was  known  to  the  English  before  the  invasion  or  whether 
it  arose  in  this  countfy,  or,  again,  whether  it  was  introduced 
from  abroad  in  later  times.  Yet  the  fact  is  worth  noting  that 
all  the  poems  of  which  we  have  any  remains  deal  with  stories 
relating  to  continental  or  Scandinavian  lands.  Indeed,  in  the 
whole  of  our  early  national  poetry,  there  is  no  reference  to  per- 
sons who  are  known  to  have  lived  in  Britain.  Kogel  put  for- 
ward the  view  that  epic  poetry  originated  among  the  Goths,  and 
that  its  appearance  in  the  north-west  of  Europe  is  to  be  traced 
to  the  harpist  who  was  sent  to  Clovis  by  Theodric,  king  of  the 
Ostrogoths.  Yet  the  traditions  preserved  in  our  poems  speak 
of  professional  minstrels  before  the  time  of  Clovis.  The  expla- 
nation of  the  incident  referred  to  may  be  merely  that  minstrelsy 
had  attained  greater  perfection  among  the  Goths  than  else- 
where.    Unfortunately  Gothic  poetry  has  wholly  perished. 

Although  definite  evidence  is  wanting,  it  is  commonly  held 
that  the  old  Teutonic  poetry  was  entirely  strophic.  Such  is  the 
case  with  all  the  extant  Old  Norse  poems,  and  there  is  no  reason 
for  thinking  that  any  other  form  of  poetry  was  known  in  the 
north.  Moreover,  in  two  of  the  earliest  Old  English  poems, 
Widsith  and  Deor,  the  strophes  may  be  restored  practically  with- 
out alteration  of  the  text.  An  attempt  has  even  been  made  to 
reconstruct  Beowulf  in  strophic  form ;  but  this  can  only  be  car- 
ried out  by  dealing  with  the  text  in  a  somewhat  arbitrary  man- 
ner. In  Beowulf,  as  indeed  in  most  Old  English  poems,  new 
sentences  and  even  new  subjects  begin  very  frequently  in  the 
middle  of  the  verse.  '  The  effect  of  this  is,  of  course,  to  produce 
a  continuous  metrical  narrative,  which  is  essentially  foreign  to 
the  strophic  type  of  poetry.  Further,  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked 
1  C£.  Tacitus,  Ann.  n,  88. 


24  Early  National  Poetry 

that  all  the  strophic  poems  which  we  possess  are  quite  short. 
Even  Atlamdl,  the  longest  narrative  poem  in  the  Edda,  scarcely 
reaches  one  eighth  of  the  length  of  Beowulf.  According  to 
another  theory  epics  were  derived  from  strophic  lays,  though 
never  actually  composed  in  strophic  form  themselves.  This 
theory  is,  of  course,  by  no  means  open  to  such  serious  objections. 
It  may  be  noted  that,  in  some  of  the  earliest  Old  Norse  poems, 
e.g.  Helgakvi^a  Hundingsbana  II.  and  Helgakvi^a  Hidrvar^ssonar 
the  strophes  contain  only  speeches,  while  the  connecting  nar- 
rative is  given  quite  briefly,  in  prose.  Such  pieces  might  very 
well  serve  as  the  bases  of  epic  poems.  The  greater  length  of  the 
latter  may,  then,  be  accounted  for  by  the  substitution  of  de- 
tailed descriptions  for  the  short  prose  passages,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  episodes  drawn  from  other  sources  and  perhaps  also 
by  the  combination  of  two  or  more  lays  in  one  poem.  In  any 
such  process,  however,  the  original  materials  must  have  been 
largely  transformed. 

By  far  the  most  important  product  of  the  national  epos  is 
^  Beowulf,  a  poem  of  3183  lines,  which  has  been  preserved  prac- 
tically complete  in  a  MS.  of  the  tenth  century,  now  in  the  Brit- 
ish Museum.  It  will  be  convenient  at  the  outset  to  give  a  brief 
summary  of  its  contents. 

The  poem  opens  with  a  short  account  of  the  victorious 
Danish  king  Scyld  Scefing,  whose  obsequies  are  described  in 
some  detail.  His  body  was  carried  on  board  a  ship,  piled  up 
with  arms  and  treasures.  The  ship  passed  out  to  sea,  and  none 
knew  what  became  of  it  (11.  1—52).  The  reigns  of  Scyld's  son 
and  grandson,  Beowulf  and  Healfdene,  are  quickly  passed  over, 
and  we  are  next  brought  to  Hrothgar,  the  son  of  Healfdene. 
He  builds  a  splendid  hall,  called  Heorot,  in  which  to  entertain 
his  numerous  retinue  (11.  53-100).  His  happiness  is,  however, 
destroyed  by  Grendel,  a  monster  sprung  from  Cain,  who  attacks^ 
the  hall  by  night  and  devours  as  many  as  thirty  knights  at  a  time. 
No  one  can  withstand  him,  and,  in  spite  of  sacrificial  offerings, 
the  hall  has  to  remain  empty  (11.  101-193).  When  Grendel's. 
ravages  have  lasted  twelve  years,  Beowulf,  a  nephew  of  Hygelac, 
king  of  the  Geatas,  and  a  man  of  enormous  strength,  determines 
to  go  to  Hrothgar's  assistance.  He  embarks  with  fourteen 
companions  and,  on  reaching  the  Danish  coast,  is  directed  by 


"Beowulf:"  Summary  of  the  Poem        25 

the  watchman  to  Hrothgar's  abode  (11.  194-319).  The  king, 
on  being  informed  of  his  arrival,  relates  how  he  had  known  and 
befriended  Ecgtheow,  Beowulf's  father,  Beowulf  states  the 
object  of  his  coming,  and  the  visitors  are  invited  to  feast  (11.  320 
-497).  During  the  banquet  Beowulf  is  taunted  by  Hunferth 
(Unferth),  the  king's  "orator,"  with  having  failed  in  a  swim- 
ming contest  against  a  certain  Breca.  He  replies,  giving  a 
different  version  of  the  story,  according  to  which  he  was  suc- 
cessful (11.  498-606).  (Then  the  queen  (Wealhtheow)  fills 
Beowulf's  cup,  and  he  Announces  his  determination  to  conquer 
or  die.  As  night  draws  on,  the  king  and  his  retinue  leave  the 
hall  to  the  visitors  (11.  607-665).  They  go  to  sleep,  and 
Beowulf  puts  off  his  armour,  declaring  that  he  will  not  use  his 
sword.  Grendel  bursts  into  the  hall  and  devours  one  of  the 
knights.  Beowulf,  however,  seizes  him  by  the  arm,  which  he 
tears  off  after  a  desperate  struggle,  and  the  monster  takes  to 
flight,  mortally  wounded  (11.  665-833).  Beowulf  displays  the 
arm,  and  the  Danes  come  to  express  their  admiration  of  his 
achievement.  They  tell  stories  of  heroes  of  the  past,  of  Sige- 
mund  and  his  nephew  Fitela  and  of  the  Danish  prince  Here- 
mod.^  Then  Hrothgar  himself  arrives,  congratulates  Beowulf 
on  his  victory  and  rewards  him  with  rich  gifts  (11.  834-1062). 
During  the  feast  which  follows,  the  king's  minstrel  recites  the 
story  of  Hnaef  and  Finn  (11.  1063-1159),  to  which  we  shall  have 
to  return  later.  The  queen  comes  forward  and,  after  addressing 
Hrothgar  together  with  his  nephew  and  colleague  Hrothwulf, 
thanks  Beowulf  and  presents  him  with  a  valuable  necklace  (11. 
1160-1232).  This  necklace,  it  is  stated  (11.  1202-1214),  was 
afterwards  worn  by  Hygelac  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Franks  at  his  death.  Hrothgar  and  Beowulf  now  retire,  but  a 
number  of  knights  settle  down  to  sle^p  in  the  hall.  During  the 
night  Grendel's  mother  appears  and  carries  off  Aeschere,  the 
king's  chief  councillor  (11.  1233-1306).  Beowulf  is  summoned 
and  the  king,  overwhelmed  with  grief,  tells  him  what  has  hap- 
pened and  describes  the  place  where  the  monsters  were  believed 
to  dwell.  Beowulf  promises  to  exact  vengeance  (11.  1306- 
1399).  They  set  out^or  the  place,  a  pool  overshadowed  with 
trees,  but  apparently  connected  with  the  sea.     Beowulf  plunges 

'For  these  persons  cf.  the  Old   Norse  poem  Hyndlulidb,  strophe  2,   Vol- 
sunga  Saga  cap.  7-10,  etc. 


26  Early  National  Poetry 

into  the  water  and  reaches  a  cave, where  he  has  a  desperate  en- 
counter with  the  monster.  Eventually  he  succeeds  in  kilHng  her 
with  a  sword  which  he  finds  in  the  cave.  He  then  comes  upon 
the  corpse  of  Grendel  and  cuts  off  its  head.  With  this  he  returns 
to  his  companions,  who  had  given  him  up  for  lost  (11. 1397-163 1) . 
The  head  is  brought  in  triumph  to  the  palace,  and  Beowulf 
describes  his  adventure.  The  king  praises  his  exploit  and  con- 
trasts his  spirit  with  that  of  the  unfortunate  prince  Heremod. 
From  this  he  passes  to  a  moralising  discourse  on  the  evils  of 
pride  (1632-1784).  On  the  following  day  Beowulf  bids  fare- 
well to  the  king.  They  part  affectionately,  and  the  king 
rewards  him  with  further  gifts.  Beowulf  and  his  companions 
embark  and  return  to  their  own  land  (1785 -i 921).  The 
virtues  of  Hygd,  the  young  wife  of  Hygelac,  are  praised,  and 
she  is  contrasted  with  Thrytho,  the  wife  of  Offa,  who,  in  her 
youth,  had  displayed  a  murderous  disposition  (11.  192 2-1 962). 
Beowulf  greets  Hygelac  and  gives  him  an  account  of  his  adven- 
tures. Part  of  his  speech,  however,  is  taken  up  with  a  subject 
which,  except  for  a  casual  reference  in  11.  83-85,  has  not  been 
mentioned  before,  namely,  the  relations  between  Hrothgar 
and  his  son-in-law  Ingeld,  prince  of  the  Heathobeardan. 
Ingeld's  father,  Froda,  had  been  slain  by  the  Danes  and  he  was 
constantly  incited  by  an  old  warrior  to  take  vengeance  on  the 
son  of  the  slayer.  Then  Beowulf  hands  over  to  Hygelac  and 
Hygd  the  presents  which  Hrothgar  and  Wealhtheow  had  given 
him,  and  Hygelac  in  turn  rewards  him  with  a  sword  and  with  a 
large  share  in  the  kingdom  (11.  1963-2 199). 

A  long  period  is  now  supposed  to  elapse.  Hygelac  has 
fallen,  and  his  son  Heardred  has  been  slain  by  the  Swedes. 
Then  Beowulf  has  succeeded  to  the  throne  and  reigned  glori- 
ously for  fifty  years  (11.  2200-2210).  In  his  old  age  the  land 
of  the  Geatas  is  ravaged  and  his  own  home  destroyed  by  a  fire- 
spitting  dragon  which,  after  brooding  for  three  hundred  years 
over  the  treasure  of  men  long  since  dead,  has  had  its  lair  robbed 
by  a  runaway  slave.  Beowulf,  greatly  angered,  resolves  to 
attack  it  (11.  2210-2349).  Now  comes  a  digression  referring  to 
Beowulf's  past  exploits,  in  the  course  of  which  we  learn  that  he 
had  escaped  by  swimming  when  Hygelac  lost  his  life  in  the  land 
of  the  Frisians.  On  his  return  Hygd  offered  him  the  throne, 
but  he  refused  it  in  favour  of  the  young  Heardred.     The  latter, 


"  Beowulf :  "  Summary  of  the  Poem         27 

however,  was  soon  slain  by  the  Swedish  king  Onela,  because  he 
had  granted  asylum  to  his  nephews,  Eanmund  and  Eadgils,  the 
sons  of  Ohthere.  Vengeance  was  obtained  by  Beowulf  later, 
when  he  supported  Eadgils  in  a  campaign  which  led  to  the  king's 
death  (11.  2349-2396).  Beowulf  now  approaches  the  dragon's 
lair.  He  reflects  on  the  past  history  of  his  family.  Haethcyn, 
king  of  the  Geatas,  had  accidentally  killed  his  brother  Here- 
beald,  and  their  father,  Hrethel,  died  of  grief  in  consequence. 
His  death  was  followed  by  war  with  the  Swedes,  in  which  first 
Haethcyn  and  then  the  Swedish  king  Ongentheow  (Onela's 
father)  were  slain.  When  Hygelac,  the  third  brother,  perished 
among  the  Frisians,  Daeghrefn,  a  warrior  of  the  Hugas,  was 
crushed  to  death  by  the  hero  himself  (11.  2397-2509).  Beowulf 
orders  his  men  to  wait  outside  while  he  enters  the  dragon's 
barrow  alone.  He  is  attacked  by  the  dragon,  and  his  sword 
will  not  bite.  Wiglaf ,  one  of  his  companions,  now  comes  to  the 
rescue;  but  the  rest,  in  spite  of  his  exhortations,  flee  into  a 
wood.  As  the  dragon  darts  forward  again  Beowulf  strikes  it 
on  the  head ;  but  his  sword  breaks,  and  the  dragon  seizes  him 
by  the  neck.  Wiglaf  succeeds  in  wounding  it,  and  Beowulf, 
thus  getting  a  moment's  respite,  finishes  it  off  with  his  knife 
(11.  2510-2709).  But  the  hero  is  mortally  wounded.  At  his 
request  Wiglaf  brings  the  treasure  out  of  the  lair.  Beowulf 
gives  him  directions  with  regard  to  his  funeral,  presents  him 
with  his  armour  and  necklace  and  then  dies  (11.  2709-2842.) 
The  cowardly  knights  now  return  and  are  bitterly  upbraided 
.by  Wiglaf  (11.  2842 — 2891).  A  messenger  brings  the  news  to 
the  warriors  who  have  been  waiting  behind.  He  goes  on  to 
prophesy  that,  now  their  heroic  king  has  fallen,  the  Geatas 
must  expect  hostility  on  all  sides.  With  the  Franks  there  has 
been  no  peace  since  Hygelac's  unfortunate  expedition  against 
the  Frisians  and  Hetware,  while  the  Swedes  cannot  forget 
Ongentheow'^s  disaster,  which  is  now  described  at  length.  The 
warriors  approach  the  barrow  and  inspect  the  treasure  which 
has  been  found  (11.  2891 — 3075).  Wiglaf  repeats  Beowulf's 
instructions,  the  dragon  is  thrown  into  the  sea  and  the  king's 
body  burnt  on  a  great  pyre.  Then  a  huge  barrow  is  constructed 
over  the  remains  of  the  pyre,  and  all  the  treasure  taken 
from  the  dragon's  lair  is  placed  in  it.  The  poem  ends  with 
an   account   of   the  mourning   and   the   proclamation   of  tfie 


28  Early  National  Poetry 

king's   virtues   by   twelve   warriors     who     ride     roun^     the 
barrow. 

,.^-^'lVIany  of  the  persons  and  events  mentioned  in  Beowulf  are 
known  to  us  also  from  various  Scandinavian  records,  especially 
Saxo's  Danish  History,  Hrdlfs  Saga  Kraka,  Ynglinga  Saga  (with 
the  poem  Ynglingatal)  and  the  fragments  of  the  lost  Skioldunga 
Saga.  Scyld,  the  ancestor  of  the  Scyldungas  (the  Danish 
royal  family),  clearly  corresponds  to  Skioldr,  the  ancestor  of 
the  Skioldungar,  though  the  story  told  of  him  in  Beowulf  does 
not  occur  in  Scandinavian  literature.  Healfdene  and  his  sons 
Hrothgar  and  Halga  are  certainly  identical  with  the  Danish 
king  Haf  dan  and  his  sons  Hroarr  (Roe)  and  Helgi ;  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  Hrothwulf ,  Hrothgar' s  nephew  and  colleague, 
is  the  famous  Hrolfr  Kraki,  the  son  of  Helgi.  Hrothgar's  elder 
brother  Heorogar  is  unknown,  but  his  son  Heoroweard  may  be 
identical  with  HiorvarSr,  the  brother-in-law  of  Hrolfr.  It  has 
been  plausibly  suggested  also  that  Hrethric,  the  son  of  Hroth- 
gar, may  be  the  same  person  as  Hroereker  (Roricus),  who  is 
generally  represented  as  the  son  or  successor  of  Ingialdr.  The 
name  of  the  Heathobeardan  is  unknown  in  the  north,  unless, 
possibly,  a  reminiscence  of  it  is  preserved  in  Saxo's  Hothbrod- 
dus,  the  name  of  the  king  who  slew  Roe.  Their  princes  Froda 
and  Ingeld,  however,  clearly  correspond  to  FroS  (Frotho  IV) 
and  his  son  Ingialdr,  who  are  represented  as  kings  of  the 
Danes.  Even  the  story  of  the  old  warrior  who  incites  Ingeld 
to  revenge  is  given  also  by  Saxo;  indeed,  the  speaker  (Star- 
catherus)  is  one  of  the  most  prominent  figures  in  his  history. 
Again,  the  Swedish  prince  Eadgils,  the  son  of  Ohthere,  is  cer- 
tainly identical  with  the  famous  king  of  the  Svear,  A'Sils,  the  son 
of  Ottarr,  and  his  conflict  with  Onela  corresponds  to  the  battle 
on  lake  Vener  between  A^ils  and  Ali.  The  latter  is  described 
as  a  Norwegian;  but  this  is,  in  all  probability,  a  mistake  arising^ 
from  his  surname  hinn  Upplenzki,  which  was  thought  to  refer 
to  the  Norwegian  Upplond  instead  of  the  Swedish  district  of  the 
same  name.  The  other  members  of  the  Swedish  royal  family, 
Ongentheow  and  Eanmund,  are  unknown  in  Scandinavian 
literature.  The  same  remark  applies,  probably,  to  the  whole- 
of  the  royal  family  of  the  Geatas,  except,  perhaps,  the  hero 
himself.  On  the  other  hand,  most  of  the  persons  mentioned 
in  the  minor  episodes  or  incidentally — Sigemund  and  Fitela,, 


"  Beowulf"  and  Scandinavian  Traditions    29 

Hera[|B|d,  Eormenric,  Hama,  Offa — are  more  or  less  well  known 
from  various  Scandinavian  authorities,  some  also  from  conti- 
nental sources. 

With  the  exception  of  Ynglingatal,  which  dates  probably 
from  the  ninth  century,  all  the  Scandinavian  works  mentioned 
above  are  quite  late  and,  doubtless,  based  on  tradition.  Hence 
they  give  us  no  means  of  fixing  the  dates  of  the  kings  whose 
doings  they  record — unless  one  can  argue  from  the  fact  that 
Harold  the  Fairhaired,  who  appears  to  have  been  bom  in  850, 
claimed  to  be  descended  in  the  eleventh  generation  from  A'Sils. 
Indeed,  we  have  unfortunately  no  contemporary  authorities 
for  Swedish  and  Danish  history  before  the  ninth  century. 
Several  early  Prankish  writings,  however,  refer  to  a  raid  which 
was  made  upon  the  territories  of  the  Chattuarii  on  the  lower 
Rhine  about  the  year  520.  The  raiders  were  defeated  by  Theo- 
■dberht,  the  son  of  Theodric  I,  and  their  king,  who  is  called 
Chohilaicus  (Chlochilaicus)  or  Huiglaucus,  was  killed.  This  inci- 
dent is,  without  doubt,  to  be  identified  with  the  disastrous  ex- 
pedition of  Hygelac  against  the  Franks,  Hetware  (Chattuarii) 
and  Frisians,  to  which  Beowulf  contains  several  references.  We 
need  not  hesitate,  then,  to  conclude  that  most  of  the  historical 
events  mentioned  in  Beowulf  are  to  be  dated  within  about  the 
first  three  decades  of  the  sixth  century. 

In  Gregory  of  Tours'  Historia  Francorum  (in,  3)  and  in  the 
Gesta  Regum  Francorum  (cap.  19)  the  king  of  the  raiders  is 
described  as  rex  Danorum;  in  the  Liher  Monstrorum,^  however,  as 
rex  Getarum.  As  Getarum  can  hardly  be  anything  but  a  cor- 
ruption of  Beowulf  s  Geatas  the  latter  description  is  doubtless 
correct.  The  Geatas  are,  in  all  probability,  to  be  identified 
with  the  Gautar  of  Old  Norse  literature,  i.e.  the  people  of  Go- 
taland  in  the  south  of  Sweden.  It  may  be  mentioned  that 
Procopius,  a  contemporary  of  Theodberht,  in  his  description 
{Goth.  II,  15)  of  "Thule,"  i.e.  Scandinavia,  speaks  of  the  Gotar 
(Gautoi)  as  a  very  numerous  nation. 

The  hero  himself  still  remains  to  be  discussed.  On  the 
whole,  though  the  identification  is  rejected  by  many  scholars, 
there  seems  to  be  good  reason  for  believing  that  he  was  the 
same  person  as  Bobvarr  Biarki,  the  chief  of  Hrolfr  Kraki's 
knights.     In  Hrdlfs  Saga  Kraka,  Biarki  is  represented  as  coming 

'Berger  de  Xivrey,  Traditions  Tcratologiques,  p.  12. 


30  Early  National  Poetry 

to  Leire,  the  Danish  royal  residence,  from  Gotaland,  "^flpv^  his 
brother  was  king.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  he  killed  an  animal 
demon  (a  bear  according  to  Saxo),  which  was  in  the  habit  of 
attacking  the  king's  farmyard  at  Yule.  Again,  according  to 
Skaldskaparmdl,  cap.  44  (from  Skioldunga  Saga),  he  took  part 
with  A-Sils  in  the  battle  against  AH.  In  all  these  points  his 
history  resembles  that  of  Beowulf.  It  appears  from  Hrolfs  Saga 
Kraka  that  Biarki  had  the  faculty  of  changing  into  a  bear. 
And  Beowulf's  method  of  fighting,  especially  in  his  conflict  with 
Daeghrefn,  may  point  to  a  similar  story.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  latter  part  of  Biarki's  career  is  quite  different  from  that  of 
Beowulf.  He  stayed  with  Hrolfr  to  the  end  and  shared  the 
death  of  that  king.  But  the  latter  part  of  Beowulf's  life  can 
hardly  be  regarded  as  historical.  Indeed,  his  own  exploits 
throughout  are  largely  of  a  miraculous  character. 

There  is  another  Scandinavian  story,  however,  which  has  a 
very  curious  bearing  on  the  earlier  adventures  of  Beowulf. 
This  is  a  passage  in  Grettis  Saga  (cap.  64  ff .) ,  in  which  the  hero 
is  represented  as  destroying  two  demons,  male  and  female. 
The  scene  is  laid  in  Iceland ;  yet  so  close  are  the  resemblances 
between  the  two  stories,  in  the  character  of  the  demons,  in  the 
description  of  the  places  they  inhabit  and  in  the  methods  by 
which  the  hero  deals  with  them,  as  well  as  in  a  number  of  minor 
details,  that  it  is  impossible  to  ascribe  them  to  accident.  Now 
Grettir  seems  to  be  a  historical  person  who  died  about  the  year 
1 03 1.  The  presumption  is,  then,  that  an  older  story  has  be- 
become  attached  to  his  name.  But  there  is  nothing  in  the 
account  that  gives  any  colour  to  the  idea  that  it  is  actually 
derived  from  the  Old  English  poem.  More  probably  the  origin 
of  both  stories  alike  is  to  be  sought  in  a  folk- tale,  and,  just  as  the 
adventures  were  attributed  in  Iceland  to  the  historical  Grettir, 
so  in  England,  and,  possibly,  also  in  Denmark,  at  an  earlier 
date  they  were  associated  with  a  historical  prince  of  the  Gotar. 
From  the  occurrence  of  the  local  names  Beowanham  and  Grendles 
mere  in  a  Wiltshire  charter  ^  some  scholars  have  inferred  that 
the  story  was  originally  told  of  a  certai»>  Beowa,  whom  they 
have  identified  with  Beaw  or  Beo,  the  son  of  Scyld  (Sceldwea) 
in  the  West  Saxon  genealogy.  But  since  this  person  is,  in  all 
probability,  identical  with  the  first  (Danish)  Beowulf  of  the 

"Kemble,  Cod.  Dipl.  353. 


"Beowulf  :  Origin  and  Antiquity  3i 

poeq^AHcl  since  the  name  Beowa  may  very  well  be  a  shortened 
form^rt  Beowulf,  while  the  other  names  are  obscure,  the  infer- 
ence seems  to  be  of  somewhat  doubtful  value.  On  the  whole 
there  is,  perhaps,  more  to  be  said  for  the  view  that  the  asssocia- 
tion  of  Beowulf  with  the  folk-tale  arose  out  of  some  real  adven- 
ture with  an  animal.  This,  however,  must  remain  largely  a 
matter  of  speculation.  The  fight  with  the  dragon  is,  of  course, 
common  motive  in  folk-tales.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to 
show  that  Beowulf's  adventure  has  a  specially  close  affinity 
with  a  story  told  by  Saxo  of  the  Danish  king  Frotho  I.  But  the 
resemblance  between  the  two  stories  is  not  very  striking. 

With  regard  to  the  origin  and  antiquity  of  the  poem  it  is 
impossible  to  arrive  at  any  definite  conclusions  with  certainty. 
From  investigations  which  have  been  made  into  its  linguis- 
tic and  metrical  characteristics  the  majority  of  scholars  hold 
that  it  was  originally  composed  in  a  northern  or  midland  dialect 
— though  it  has  been  preserved  only  in  West  Saxon  form — and 
that  it  is  at  least  as  old  as  any  other  considerable  piece  of  Old 
English  poetry  which  we  possess.  The  question  of  antiquity, 
however,  is  complicated  by  the  doubt  which  is  commonly  felt  as 
to  the  unity  of  the  poem.  Moreover,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
this  feeling  of  doubt  is,  at  least  to  some  extent,  justified.  In  its 
present  form  the  poem  must  date  from  Christian  times  as  it  con- 
tains a  considerable  number  of  passages  of  distinctly  Christian 
character.  On  the  other  hand,  the  relationships  of  the  various 
Danish  and  Swedish  kings  can  hardly  have  been  remembered 
otherwise  than  in  a  more  or  less  stereotyped  form  of  words  for 
more  than  a  generation  after  their  lifetime.  Hence  we  are 
bound  to  conclude  that  the  formation  of  the  poem,  or,  at  all 
events,  that  of  the  materials  from  which  it  was  made  up,  must 
have  occupied  at  least  the  greater  part  of  a  century. 

It  is  generally  thought  that  several  originally  separate  lays 
have  been  combined  in  the  poem,  and,  though  no  proof  is 
obtainable,  the  theory  in  itself  is  not  unlikely.  These  lays  are 
usually  supposed  to  have  been  four  in  number  and  to  have 
dealt  with  the  following  subjects:  (i)  Beowulf's  fight  with 
Grendel,  (ii)  the  fight  with  Grendel's  mother,  (iii)  Beowulf's 
return,  (iv)  the  fight  with  the  dragon.  In  view  of  the  story  in 
Grettis  Saga  I  am  very  much  incline'd  to  doubt  whether  it  is 
justifiable  to  separate  the  first  two  incidents.     The  fight  with 


32  Early  National  Poetry 

the  dragon,  however,  is  certainly  quite  distinct,  and  ^|^)art 
of  the  poem  deahng  with  Beowulf's  reception  by  Hyg^^rnay 
also  have  originally  formed  the  subject  of  a  separate  lay.  Some 
scholars  have  gone  much  further  than  this  in  their  analysis  of 
the  poem.  According  to  one  view  nearly  half  of  it  is  the  work 
of  interpolators ;  according  to  another  the  present  text  is  a  com- 
posite one  made  up  from  two  parallel  versions.  It  is  much  to 
be  doubted,  however,  whether  any  really  substantial  result- 
has  been  obtained  from  these  investigations  into  the  "inner 
history ' '  of  the  poem.  The  references  to  religion  seem  to  afford 
the  only  safe  criterion  for  distinguishing  between  earlier  and 
later  elements.  Thus,  it  is  worth  noting  that  in  11.  175  ff.  the 
Danes  are  represented  as  offering  heathen  sacrifices,  a  passage 
which  is  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  sentiments  afterwards 
attributed  to  Hrothgar.  But  at  what  stage  in  the  history  of 
the  poem  was  the  Christian  element  introduced? 

Certainly  this  element  seems  to  be  too  deeply  interwoven  in 
the  text  for  us  to  suppose  that  it  is  due  to  additions  made  by 
scribes  at  a  time  when  the  poem  had  come  to  be  written  down. 
Indeed  there  is  little  evidence  for  any  additions  or  changes  of  this 
kind.  We  must  ascribe  it,  then,  either  to  the  original  poet  or  poets 
or  to  minstrels  by  whom  the  poem  was  recited  in  later  times.  The 
extent  to  which  the  Christian  element  is  present  varies  some- 
what in  different  parts  of  the  poem.  In  the  last  portion  (11. 
2200-3183)  the  number  of  lines  affected  by  it  amounts  to  less 
than  four  per  cent.,  while  in  the  section  dealing  with  Beowulf's 
return  (11.  1904 — 2199)  it  is  negligible.  In  the  earlier  portions, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  percentage  rises  to  between  nine  and.  ten, 
but  this  is  partly  due  to  four  long  passages.  One  fact  worth 
observing  is  that  the  Christian  element  is  about  equally  dis- 
tributed between  the  speeches  and  the  narrative.  We  have 
noticed  above  that,  according  to  a  theory  which  has  much  in  its 
favour,  epics  are  derived  from  "mixed"  pieces,  in  which 
speeches  were  given  in  verse  and  narrative  in  prose.  If  Chris- 
tian influence  had  made  itself  felt  at  this  stage,  we  should  surely 
have  expected  to  find  it  more  prominent  in  the  narrative  than 
in  the  speeches,  for  the  latter  would,  presumably,  be  far  less 
liable  to  change. 

There  is  one  curious  feature  in  the  poem  which  has  scarcely 
received  sufficient  attention,  namely  the  fact  that,  while  the 


"Beowulf":  the  Religious  Element        33 

poct's;*'eflections  and  even  the  sentiments  attributed  to  the 
various  speakers  are  largely,  though  not  entirely,  Christian,  the 
custorns  and  ceremonies  described  are,  almost  without  excep- 
tion, heathen.  This  fact  seems  to  point,  not  to  a  Christian 
work  with  heathen  reminiscences,  but  to  a  heathen  work 
which  has  undergone  revision  by  Christian  minstrels.  In  par- 
ticular, I  cannot  believe  that  any  Christian  poet  either  could 
or  would  have  composed  the  account  of  Beowulf's  funeral. 
It  is  true  that  we  have  no  references  to  heathen  gods,  and* 
hardly  any  to  actual  heathen  worship.  But  such  references 
would  necessarily  be  suppressed  or  altered  when  the  courts  be- 
came Christian.  Indeed,  there  is  a  fairly  clear  case  of  alter- 
ation in  11.  175  ff.,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  tt  m-^y, 
perhaps,  be  urged  that,  if  the  work  had  been  subjected  to  such 
a  thorough  revision,  descriptions  of  heathen  ceremonies  would 
not  have  been  allowed  to  stand.  But  the  explanation  may  be 
that  the  ceremonies  in  question  had  passed  out  of  use  before 
the  change  of  religion.  In  the  case  of  cremation,  which  is  the 
prevalent  form  of  funeral  rite  found  in  the  poem,  we  have  good 
reason  for  believing  this  to  be  true.  Hence,  such  passages 
could  not  excite  the  same  repugnance  among  the  clergy  as  they 
would  have  done  in  countries  where  the  ceremonies  were  still 
practised. 

I  am  disposed,  then,  to  think  that  large  portions  at  least  of 
the  poem  existed  in  epic  form  before  the  change  of  faith  and 
that  the  appearance  of  the  Christian  element  is  due  to  revision. 
The  Christianity  of  Beowulf  is  of  a  singularly  indefinite  and 
undoctrinal  type,  which  contrasts  somewhat  strongly  with 
what  is  found  in  later  Old  English  poetry.  In  explanation  of 
this  fact  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  poem  was  composed  or 
revised  under  the  influence  of  the  missionaries  from  lona.  But 
is  there  really  any  reason  for  thinking  that  the  teaching  of  the 
Irish  missionaries  would  tend  in  that  direction?  A  more 
obvious  explanation  would  be  that  the  minstrels  who  introduce 
the  Christian  element  had  but  a  vague  knowledge  of  the  new 
faith.  Except  in  11.  1743  ff.,  where  there  seems  to  be  a  refer- 
ence to  Ephesians,  vi,  16,  the  only  passages  of  the  Bible  made 
use  of  are  those  relating  to  the  Creation,  the  story  of  Cain 
and  Abel  and  the  Deluge.  In  the  first  case  (11.  90  ff.)  one  can 
hardly  help  suspecting  a  reference  to  Caedmon's  hymn,  and  the 

VOL.    I 3. 


34  Early  National  Poetry 

others  also  may  just  as  well  have  been  derived  from  Cbpstian 
poems  or  songs  as  from  the  Bible  itself.  In  any  case,  how- 
ever, the  fact  noted  favours  the  conclusion  that  the  revision 
took  place  at  an  earlier  date. 

Apart  from  Beowulf,  the  only  remains  of  national  epic  poet- 
ry which  have  come  down  to  us  are  a  short  but  fine  fragment 
(50  lines)  of  Finnshurh  and  two  still  shorter  fragments  (32  and 
31  lines  respectively)  of  Waldhere.  Regarding  the  former  our 
information  is  sadly  defective.  The  MS.  is  lost  and  the  text, 
as  given  by  Hickes,  is  extremely  corrupt.  The  story,  however^ 
though  obscure  to  us,  must  have  been  extremely  popular  in 
early  times.  It  is  the  subject  of  a  long  episode  in  Beowulf 
(see  above,  p.  25),  and  three  of  the  chief  characters  are  men- 
tioned in  Widsith.  FamiHarity  with  it  is  shown  also  by  a  mi'?- 
take  in  the  genealogy  in  the  Historia  Brittonum,  §31. 

The  fragment  opens  with  the  speech  of  a  young  prince  rous- 
ing his  followers  to  defend  the  hall  in  which  they  are  sleeping, 
apparently  within  Finn's  fortress.  They  rush  to  the  doors, 
the  chief  men  being  Hengest  (perhaps  the  prince),  Sigeferth, 
Eaha,  Ordlaf  and  Guthlaf .  A  short  altercation  follows  between" 
Sigeferth  and  Garulf,  who  is  apparently  one  of  the  attacking 
force.  The  battle  goes  on  for  five  days,  and  many  of  the 
assailants,  including  Garulf,  fall.  The  defenders,  however, 
maintain  their  position  without  loss,  and  we  are  told  that  never 
was  a  better  recompense  yielded  by  sixty  knights  to  their  lord 
than  Hnaef  now  received  from  his  followers.  Then  a  wounded 
warrior,  who  is  not  named,  brings  the  news  to  his  king — at 
which  point  the  fragment  breaks  off. 

The  episode  in  Beowulf  furnishes  us  with  considerably  more 
information  than  the  fragment  itself.  Hnaef,  a  vassal  of  the 
Danish  king  Healfdene,  has  fallen  at  the  hands  of  the  Frisians, 
whom  apparently  he  had  gone  to  visit — whether  as  friend  or 
foe  is  not  clear.  His  men,  however,  maintain  a  stout  defence, 
and  so  great  are  the  losses  of  the  Frisians  that  their  king,  Finn, 
has  to  make  terms  with  them.  An  agreement  is  then  arrived 
at  between  their  leader  Hengest  and  the  king.  They  are  to 
enter  Finn's  service  and  to  be  treated  by  him  as  generously  as 
the  Frisians  themselves;  and  no  taunt  is  to  be  raised  against 
them  on  the  ground  that  they  have  made  terms  with  the  man 


The  "  Waldhere"  Fragments  35 

who  slew  their  lord.  A  great  funeral  pyre  is  constructed  for  the 
bodies  of  the  slain,  and  Hildeburh,  apparently  the  wife  of  Finn 
and  sister  of  Hnaef ,  bewails  the  loss  of  both  her  brother  and  her 
son.  Hengest  and  his  companions  stay  with  Finn  -throughout 
the  winter,  though  sorely  tempted  to  exact  vengeance.  Event- 
ually, Guthlaf  and  Oslaf  (Ordlaf  ?)  attack  and  slay  Finn  with 
many  of  his  men.  The  queen  is  carried  away  to  Denmark  with 
much  treasure. 

There  are  no  certain  references  to  this  story  in  Scandinavian 
or  German  literature,  though  Ordlaf  and  Guthlaf  are  probably 
to  be  identified  with  two  Danish  princes  mentioned  in  Arngrim 
Jonsson's  epitome  of  Skioldunga  Saga,  cap.  4.  The  tragic 
events  with  which  the  story  deals  must  clearly  be  referred  to 
the  time  of  those  great  movements  in  the  regions  of  the  North 
Sea,  between  the  fourth  and  sixth  centuries,  to  which  Latin 
writers  occasionally  allude.  The  fact  that  Hnaef  is  called  a 
vassal  of  Healfdene,  Hrothgar's  father,  points  to  about  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  century.  It  is  by  no  means  impossible, 
therefore,  that  the  Hengest  of  this  story  is  identical  with  the 
Hengest  who  founded  the  kingdom  of  Kent. 

The  MS.  fragments  of  Waldhere  (Waldere)  are  preserved  in 
the  Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen.  For  this  story,  fortunately, 
information  is  available  from  a  number  of  continental  sources. 
It  is  the  subject  of  a  Latin  epic  poem  (Waltharius)  by  Ekke- 
hard  of  St.  Gall,  dating  from  the  first  half  of  the  tenth  century ; 
of  a  Bavarian  poem  dating  from  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  of  which  only  small  fragments  are  preserved ;  and  of 
two  episodes  in  the  Norwegian  Vilkina  Saga  (§§  128  f.,  241-4; 
cf.  331),  which  is  of  Low  German  origin.  Incidental  refer- 
ences to  it  occur  in  several  Middle  High  German  poems,  and 
there  is  also  a  Polish  version  of  the  story,  the  earliest  foiTn  of 
which  is  in  Chronicon  Boguphali  Episcopi,  dating  from  the 
thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century.  It  will  be  convenient  here 
to  give  a  brief  summary  of  Ekkehard's  story,  as  this  is  the 
earliest  of  the  continental  authorities  and  appears  to  have  the 
closest  resemblance  to  our  fragments. 

Alphere,  king  of  Aquitaine,  had  a  son  named  Waltharius, 
and  Heriricus,  king  of  Burgundy,  an  only  daughter  named 
Hiltgund,  who  was  betrothed   to   Waltharius.      While   they 


36  Early  National  Poetry 

were  yet  children,  however,  Attila,  king  of  the  Huns,  invaded 
Gaul,  and  the  kings,  seeing  no  hope  in  resistance,  gave  up  their 
children  to  him  as  hostages,  together  with  much  treasure. 
Under  like  compulsion  treasure  was  obtained  also  from  Gibicho, 
king  of  the  Franks,  who  sent  as  hostage  a  youth  of  noble  birth 
named  Hagano.  In  Attila's  ser\dce,  Waltharius  and  Hagano 
won  great  renown  as  warriors,  but  the  latter  eventually  made 
his  escape.  When  Waltharius  grew  up  he  became  Attila's 
chief  general;  yet  he  remembered  his  old  engagement  with 
Hiltgund.  On  his  return  from  a  victorious  campaign  he  made 
a  great  feast  for  the  king  and  his  court,  and  when  all  were  sunk 
in  drunken  sleep,  he  and  Hiltgund  fled  laden  with  much  gold. 
On  their  way  home  they  had  to  cross  the  Rhine  near  Worms. 
There  the  king  of  the  Franks,  Guntharius,  the  son  of  Gibicho, 
heard  from  the  ferryman  of  the  gold  they  were  carrying  and 
determined  to  secure  it.  Accompanied  by  Hagano  and  eleven 
other  picked,  warriors,  he  overtook  them  as  they  rested  in  a 
cave  in  the  Vosges.  Waltharius  offered  him  a  large  share  of  the 
gold  in  order  to  obtain  peace ;  but  the  king  demanded  the  whole 
together  with  Hiltgund  and  the  horse.  Stimulated  by  the 
promise  of  great  rewards,  the  eleven  warriors  now  attacked 
Waltharius  one  after  another,  but  he  slew  them  all.  Hagano 
had  tried  to  dissuade  Guntharius  from  the  attack;  but  now, 
since  his  nephew  was  among  the  slain,  he  formed  a  plan  with 
the  king  for  surprising  Waltharius.  On  the  following  day  they 
both  fell  upon  him  after  he  had  quitted  his  stronghold,  and,  in 
the  struggle  that  ensued,  all  three  were  maimed.  Waltharius, 
however,  was  able  to  proceed  on  his  way  with  Hiltgund,  and 
the  story  ends  happily  with  their  marriage. 

Both  our  fragments  refer  to  the  time  immediately  before 
the  final  encounter.  The  first  is  taken  up  with  a  speech,  appar- 
ently by  the  lady,  in  which  Waldhere  is  exhorted  to  acquit 
himself  in  the  coming  fight  in  a  manner  worthy  of  his  former 
deeds.  Guthhere  has  unjustly  begun  hostilities  and  refused 
the  offer  of  a  sword  and  treasure.  Now  he  will  have  to  go 
away  empty-handed,  if  he  does  not  lose  his  life.  Between  the 
two  fragments  probably  not  very  much  has  been  lost.  The 
second  is  occupied  by  an  altercation  between  Guthhere 
and  Waldhere,  in  which  the  former  praises  his  sword  and  the 
latter  his  coat  of  mail.     Waldhere  states  that  the  king  had  tried 


"Widsith"  37 

to  get  Hagena  to  attack  him  first.  Victory,  however,  comes  to 
the  faithful  from  above.  Both  the  fragments  contain  Christian 
allusions. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  Old  English  poem  was  a 
translation  from  an  early  German  one ;  but  the  evidence  adduced 
is  far  from  satisfactory.  The  speeches  given  in  the  fragments 
have  nothing  corresponding  to  them  in  Ekkehard's  text,  and 
there  is  a  noteworthy  difference  in  the  portraiture  of  the 
heroine's  character.  Probably,  nothing  more  than  the  tradi- 
tion was  derived  from  abroad,  and  at  a  very  early  date,  if  we 
may  judge  from  the  form  of  the  names. 

In  the  fragments,  Guthhere  is  represented  as  king  of  the 
Burgundians.  Since  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  is  the  Bur- 
gundian  king  Gundicarius  (Gundaharius)  who  was  defeated 
and  slain  by  the  Huns  about  the  year  437,  we  must  conclude 
that  Ekkehard's  nomenclature  was  affected  by  the  political 
geography  of  his  own  day,  when  Worms  was  a  Prankish  town. 
The  other  chief  characters  are  known  only  from  German  and 
Scandinavian  tradition.  But  the  story  may  very  well  be 
founded  on  fact,  as  it  is  likely  enough  that  Attila  did  take  host- 
ages from  the  princes  of  eastern  Gaul.  In  the  Bavarian  frag- 
ments the  hero  belongs  not  to  Aquitaine  but  to  Langres.  Now, 
the  country  round  Langres  and  Chalon-sur-Saone  (Hiltgund's 
home  in  the  Latin  poem) ,  although  the  latter  was  included  in  the 
Burgundy  of  the  tenth  century,  must  once  have  been  settled  by 
Franks  from  the  Netherlands ;  for  we  find  here,  in  later  times, 
districts  called  pagus  Hamauorum  and  pagns  Hattiiariorum. 
This  settlement,  as  Zeuss  pointed  out  long  ago,  probably  took 
place  in  the  reign  of  Constantius  Chlorus.  Hence,  there  may 
have  been  Prankish  princes  at  Chalon  and  Langres  in  the  time 
of  Attila. 

The  rest  of  the  poems  which  we  have  to  treat  in  this  chapter 
are  preserved  in  the  Exeter  Book.  It  will  be  convenient  to  take 
Widsith  first;  for,  though  not  an  epic  itself,  it  contains  much 
matter  in  common  with  poems  of  that  type.  Indeed,  so  many 
princes  and  peoples  are  mentioned  in  the  course  of  the  poem 
that  its  importance  for  the  history  of  the  migration  period  can 
hardly  be  overestimated. 

In  the  introduction  (11.  1-9)  it  is  stated  that  the  poet  be- 


3^  Early  National  Poetry 

longed  to  the  Myrgingas,  a  people  or  rather  dynasty  whose  ter- 
ritories, apparently,  were  conterminous  with  those  of  the  Angli 
(of.  11.  41  ff.)»  and  that,  in  company  with  a  princess  named 
Ealhhild,  he  visited  the  court  of  the  Gothic  king  Eormenric. 
Then,  in  11.  10  ff .,  he  begins  to  enumerate  the  princes  with  whom 
he  was  acquainted.    This  list  contains  the  names  of  many  kings 
famous  in  history  and  tradition,  together  with  those  of  the 
peoples  which  they  governed,  the  formula  employed  being  "A. 
ruled  over  B."     Among  them  we  find  Gifica  (Gibicho),  Breca, 
Finn,  Hnaef,  Saeferth  (Sigeferth?)  and  Ongentheow,  who  have 
been  mentioned  above,  as  well  as  Attila,  Eormenric,  Theodric 
(king  of  the  Franks)  and  others,  some  of  whom  are  not  known 
from  other  sources.     In  11.  35-44  there  is  a  reference  to  the 
single  combat  of  Offa,  king  of  Angel,  a  story  which  is  given 
by  Saxo  (pp.  113  ff.),  Svend  Aagesen  and  the  VitcB  Duorum 
Offarum.     In  11.  45-49  we  hear  of  the  long  and  faithful  part- 
nership of  Hrothgar  and  Hrothwulf  and  of  their  victory  over 
Ingeld,  an  incident  to  which  Beowulf  (11.  83  ff .)  has  only  a  vague 
allusion.     Then,  in  11.  50  ff.  the  poet  again  speaks  of  his  journeys 
and  gives  a  list  of  the  nations  he  had  visited.     This  list  is  twice 
interrupted  (11.  65-67,  70-74)  by  references  to  the  generosity 
with  which  he  had  been  treated  by  Guthhere,  king  of  the  Bur- 
gundians,  and  by  Aelfwine   (Alboin)   in  Italy.  ^     In  11.  76-78 
there  is  another  interruption  referring  to  the  power  of  Casere, 
i.e.  the  Greek  Emperor.     Then,  in  11.  88  ff.,  the  poet  tells  of  the 
gifts  he  had  received  from  Eormenric,  from  his  lord  Eadgils, 
prince  of  the  Myrgingas,  and  from  Ealhhild,  and  also  of  his  own 
skill  as  a  minstrel.     At  1.  109,  he  begins  an  enumeration  of  the 
Gothic  heroes  he  had  visited,  most  of  whom  are  known  to  us 
from  Jordanes,  Volsunga  Saga  (probably  also  Hervarar  Saga) , 
Vilkina  Saga  and  German  traditions.     In  11.  119  ff.  he  speaks 
of  the  ceaseless  warfare  round  the  forest  of  the  Vistula,  when 
the  Goths  had  to  defend  their  country  against  the  Huns.     The 
list  closes  with  a  reference  to  the  martial  deeds  of  Wudga  and 
Hama,  who  are  mentioned  also  in  Waldhere  and  Beowulf  as  well 
as  in  Vilkina  Saga,  the  former  also  in  many  other  continental 
authorities.     The  epilogue  consists  of  a  short  reflection  on  the 
life  of  wandering  minstrels  and  on  the  advantages  gained  by 
princes  in  treating  them  generously. 

1  Cf.  Paulus  Diaconus,  Hist.  Lang.,  i,  27. 


"Widsith"  39 

Apart  from  the  introduction  and  epilogue,  which  may  origin- 
ally have  been  in  prose,  this  poem  appears  to  have  been  com- 
posed in  strophic  form.  Its  date  cannot  be  determined  with 
certainty.  There  is  nothing,  however,  to  prevent  us  from 
assigning  it  to  the  seventh  century  or  even  an  earlier  date ;  for, 
though  a  Christian  element  is  present  (11.  15,  82-87,  ^3'^~ 
134),  it  is  very  slight  and  may  be  removed  without  affecting 
the  structure  of  the  poem.  Alboin,  who  died  about  5  7  2 ,  is  prob- 
ably, the  latest  person  mentioned.  Now  Ealhhild's  father 
bears  the  same  name  (Eadwine)  as  Alboin's  father,  i.e.  Audoin, 
king  of  the  Langobardi,  a  fact  which  has  led  many  scholars  to 
believe  that  Ealhhild  was  Alboin's  sister,  and,  consequently, 
that  the  poet  lived  towards  the  close  of  the  sixth  century. 
This  hypothesis,  however,  involves,  practically,  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  whole  poem;  for  the  poet  repeatedly  speaks  of  his 
visits  to  Eormenric  who,  as  we  know  from  Ammianus  Marcel- 
linus  (xxxi,  3.  i.),  died  about  two  centuries  before  Alboin,  and 
clearly  implies  that  Ealhhild  was  his  contemporary,  whereas 
he  only  once  alludes  to  Alboin,  in  a  passage  covering  five  lines. 
The  identity  of  the  two  names  is,  therefore,  probably  a  mere 
coincidence.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  heroes  commemorated 
in  the  poem  lived  at  wide  intervals  from  one  another,  though 
Eormenric  and  persons  apparently  contemporary  with  him 
figure  more  prominently  than  the  rest.  With  greater  proba- 
bility one  might  suppose  that  traditions  existed  of  a  famous 
minstrel  who  lived  at  the  court  of  a  prince  named  Eadgils,  and 
that  on  the  basis  of  these  traditions  later  minstrels  built  up  lists 
of  the  chief  national  heroes  known  to  them.  Against  this  sug- 
gestion, however,  stands  the  fact  that  the  minstrel's  name  is 
really  unknown,  for  Widsith  is  an  obviously  fictitious  name 
(meaning  "  far-travelled  ")  and  must  be  explained  by  the  state- 
ment in  11.  2  f.  as  to  the  extent  of  the  poet's  journeys.  On  the 
other  hand,  any  hypothesis  which  would  represent  the  minstrel 
as  a  fictitious  character  is  open  to  the  objection  that,  in  that  case, 
he  would  hardly  have  been  associated  with  so  obscure  a  person 
as  Eadgils,  prince  of  the  Myrgingas,  a  family  not  mentioned 
except  in  this  poem.  On  the  whole,  then,  the  hypothesis  that 
the  kernel  of  the  poem  is  really  the  work  of  an  unknown  fourth- 
century  minstrel,  who  did  visit  the  court  of  Eormenric,  seems 
to  involve  fewer  difficulties  than  any  other.     In  that  case,  of 


40  Early  National  Poetry 

course,  such  passages  as  11.  82  ff.  must  be  regarded  as  merely 
the  last  stage  in  a  process  of  accretion  which  had  been  going  on 
for  some  three  centuries. 

The  elegy  of  Deor  is  a  much  shorter  poem  than  Widsith  (42 
lines  in  all)  and  in  its  general  tone  presents  a  striking  contrast 
to  it.  While  Widsith  tells  of  the  glory  of  famous  heroes  and, 
incidentally,  of  the  minstrel's  own  success,  Deor  is  taken  up  with 
stories  of  misfortune,  which  are  brought  forward  in  illustration 
of  the  poet's  troubles.  The  strophic  form  is  preser\^ed  through- 
out and,  except  in  the  last  fifteen  lines,  which  seem  to  have 
been  somewhat  remodelled,  each  strophe  ends  with  a  refrain 
(a  phenomenon  for  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  parallel 
in  Old  English  poetry) :  "  That  (trouble)  was  got  over  (or 
brought  to  an  end) ;  so  can  this  be." 

Originally,  perhaps,  every  strophe  referred  to  a  different 
story  of  trouble.  Thus,  strophe  i  deals  with  the  misfortunes 
suffered  by  Weland  at  the  hands  of  Nithhad  and  strophe  2 
with  the  wrongs  done  by  Weland  to  Beaduhild.  For  both  these 
we  may  refer  to  the, Old  Norse  poem  Volundarkvi'Sa.  In  strophe 
3  we  hear  of  the  passionate  love  of  Geat,  presumably  the  mythi- 
cal person  from  whom  the  English  kings  traced  their  descent. 
Strophe  4  speaks  of  the  thirty  years'  exile  of  a  certain  Theodric, 
probably  the  same  Theodric  who,  in  Waldhere,  is  associated 
with  Widia  (Wudga).  In  German  tradition,  from  the  Hilde- 
hrandslied  onwards,  as  well  as  by  most  modern  writers,  he  is 
identified  with  Theodric,  king  of  the  Ostrogoths  (Dietrich  von 
Bern) .  Strophe  5  deals  with  the  cruelty  of  Eormenric  and  the 
suffering  of  his  people.  What  follows  is  not  so  clear,  and  11.  31- 
34  are  the  work  of  a  Christian.  The  closing  lines,  however,  are 
very  remarkable.  The  poet  states  that  he  had  been  the  bard  of 
the  Heodeningas,  and  that  he  had  been  displaced  from  his  office 
by  a  skilful  minstrel  called  Heorrenda.  Now,  the  name  Heod- 
eningas must  mean  either  the  descendants  of  Heoden  or,  like 
the  Old  Norse  Hia^ningar,  Heoden  (He^inn)  himself  and  his 
people.  The  story  of  He^inn's  flight  with  Hildr,  the  daughter 
of  Hogni,  was  well  known  in  the  north ^  and,  apparently,  also  in 
England,  if  we  may  judge  from  Widsith,  1.  21.  Again,  Heor- 
renda is  identical  with  Hiarrandi,  the  name  of  HeSinn's  father 
1  Cf.  Skaldskaparmdl,  cap.  50,  Soda  Thdttr,  cap.  5  ff.,  Saxo,  pp.  158  ff. 


"Deor."     "The  Wanderer"  41 

in  the  Norse  accounts ;  in  the  Austrian  poem  Kudrttn,  however, 
which  seems  to  contain  the  same  story  in  a  corrupt  form,  Hor- 
ant  is  a  near  relative  of  Hetel  (HeSinn)  and  also  a  famous  min- 
strel. Hagena  (Hogni),  according  to  Widsith,  was  king  of  the 
Holmryge,  a  people  probably  in  eastern  Pomerania,  and  Heoden 
also  may  have  belonged  to  the  same  region.  When  these  per- 
sons lived  we  do  not  know;  but  such  evidence  as  we  have  points 
to  a  period  anterior  to  the  sixth«  century.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  story  to  justify  the  supposition  that  they  are  of  mythical 
origin.  * 

Here  again,  as  in  the  case  of  Widsith,  it  is  possible  that  a 
poem  has  been  built  round  the  memory  of  a  famous  minstrel, 
— one  who  met  with  misfortune  in  later  life.  Yet  we  have  no 
knowledge  of  such  a  person  from  other  sources,  while  the  state- 
ment given  in  the  poem  itself  as  to  its  origin  is  quite  definite. 
If  this  statement  is  true,  the  poem  must,  of  course,  be  very 
ancient.  But  there  seems  to  be  no  valid  reason  for  disputing 
its  antiquity ;  for  the  four  lines  which  show  Christian  influence 
may  very  well  be  a  later  addition,  while  the  supposed  identity 
of  the  exiled  Theodric  with  Theodric  the  Ostrogoth  must  be 
regarded  as  a  somewhat  doubtful  hypothesis  at  the  best. 

The  rest  of  the  shorter  poems  contain  no  proper  names. 
Their  subjects  seem  to  be  drawn  rather  from  typical  characters 
and  situations  than  from  the  experiences  of  historical  or  legend- 
ary persons.  They  are  of  quite  uncertain  date,  though,  doubt- 
less, much  later  than  the  two  poems  we  have  just  discussed. 
They  betray  little  or  no  trace  of  strophic  form. 

The  Wanderer  is  a  rather  long  elegy  (115  lines),  depicting 
the  sufferings  of  a  man  who  has  lost  his  lord.  Alone  and  friend- 
less, he  travels  over  the  sea,  seeking  a  home  where  he  can  find 
protection.  In  sleep,  visions  of  his  former  happiness  come 
back  to  him.  When  he  awakes  his  heart  sinks  at  the  sight  of 
the  grey  waves  and  the  falling  snow.  Then  he  passes  on  to 
reflect  on  the  vicissitudes  of  human  Hfe  and  on  the  ruined  cas- 
tles which  may  be  seen  in  all  directions,  testifying  to  the  de- 
struction that  has  overtaken  their  owners.  The  poem  throws 
an  interesting  light  on  the  close  nature  of  the  relationship 
subsisting  in  early  times  between  lord  and  man.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  Cynewulf  was  the  author;  but  this  view  is  now 


42  Early  National  Poetry 

generally  abandoned.     Indeed,  the  Christian  element  is  slight 
and  may  be  due  to  later  additions. 

The  Seafarer  is  a  poem  of  about  the  same  length  as  The  Wan- 
derer and  resembles  it  in  several  passages  rather  closely.  The 
sequence  of  thought,  however,  is  much  less  clear.  The  poet 
begins  by  reflecting  on  the  miseries  which  he  has  endured  when 
travelling  by  sea  in  winter — miseries  of  which  the  landsman  in 
his  comfortable  castle  knows  nothing.  Yet  in  11.  33  ff.  he  says 
that  he  has  an  irresistible  impulse  to  try  the  seaman's  life.  He 
w^ho  feels  this  desire  cannot  be  deterred  by  any  of  the  pleasures 
of  home,  however  fortunately  circumstanced  he  may  be.  From 
1.  64  onwards  he  begins  a  comparison  between  the  transitory 
nature  of  earthly  pleasures  and  the  eternal  rewards  of  reHgion, 
concluding  with  an  exhortation  to  his  hearers  to  fix  their  hopes 
on  heaven. 

In  order  to  explain  the  apparent  contradictions  of  the  poem 
some  scholars  have  proposed  to  take  it  as  a  dialogue  between 
an  old  seaman  and  a  young  man  who  wishes  to  try  the  seaman's 
life ;  but  there  is  a  good  deal  of  disagreement  as  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  lines.  The  second  half  of  the  poem,  with  its  religious 
reflections,  is  believed  by  many  to  be  a  later  addition.  If  that 
be  not  the  case,  it  is  at  least  questionable  whether  we  are  justi- 
fied in  classing  The  Seafarer  among  national  poems. 

The  Wife's  Complaint  is  another  poem  which  presents  serious 
difficulties  owing  to  obscurity  in  the  train  of  thought.  Indeed, 
in  at  least  one  passage  the  obscurity  is  so  great  that  one  can 
hardly  believe  the  text  as  it  stands  to  be  correct.  The  speaker 
is  a  woman  who  bewails  the  ever  increasing  troubles  with  which 
she  is  beset.  First  her  husband  departed  from  her  over  the 
sea.  Then,  apparently  at  the  instigation  of  his  relatives,  she 
is  imprisoned  in  an  old  dwelling  dug  out  of  the  earth  under  an 
oak,  where  she  sits  in  solitude  bewailing  her  troubles  the  whole 
day  long.  She  has  no  friends  at  hand,  and  all  the  vows  of  last- 
ing love  which  she  and  her  husband  had  exchanged  in  time  past 
have  come  to  nothing. 

The  Husband's  Message,  so  far  as  it  can  be  read,  is  a  much 
simpler  poem ;  but,  unfortunately,  a  number  of  letters  have  been 


"The  Husband's  Message"  43 

lost  in  11.  2-6  and  32-40  owing  to  a  large  rent  in  the  MS.  The 
poem  is  in  the  form  of  a  speech  addressed,  apparently  by  means 
of  a  staff  inscribed  with  runic  letters,  to  a  woman  of  royal  rank. 
The  speech  is  a  message  from  the  woman's  husband  (or  possibly 
lover),  who  has  had  to  leav^e  his  country  in  consequence  of  a 
vendetta.  It  is  to  the  effect  that  he  has  succeeded  in  gaining 
for  himself  a  position  of  wealth  and  dignity  in  another  land. 
He  now  wishes  to  assure  her  that  his  devotion  is  unchanged,  to 
remind  her  of  the  vows  they  had  made  in  times  past  and  to  ask 
her  to  sail  southwards  to  join  him  as  soon  as  spring  comes. 

This  is  the  gist  of  the  poem  as  it  appears  in  almost  all  edi- 
tions. It  has  recently  been  pointed  out,  however,  that  the  sev- 
enteen lines  which  immediately  precede  it  in  the  MS.  and  which 
have  generally  been  regarded  as  a  riddle— unconnected  with  the 
poem  itself — seem  really  to  form  the  beginning  of  the  speech. 
In  these  lines  the  object  speaking  states  that  once  it  grew  by 
the  seashore,  but  that  a  knife  and  human  skill  have  fitted  it 
to  give  utterance  to  a  message  which  requires  to  be  delivered 
privately. 

Again,  more  than  one  scholar  has  remarked  that  the  poem 
looks  very  much  like  a  sequel  to  The  Wife's  Complaint.  Others 
have  denied  the  connection  between  the  tw^o  poems  on  the 
ground  that  in  The  Wife's  Complaint,  1.  15,  the  lady's  imprison- 
ment is  attributed  to  the  husband  himself.  But  it  should  be 
obser\^ed  that  this  passage  is  scarcely  intelligible  in  its  present 
form  and,  further,  that  it  seems  to  conflict  with  w^hat  is  said 
elsewhere  in  the  poem.  On  the  whole  the  balance  of  probability 
seems  to  me  to  be  in  favour  of  the  connection.  , 

The  Ruin  follow^s  The  Husband's  Message  in  the  Exeter  Book 
and  suffers  from  the  same  rent.  It  differs  somewhat  in  char- 
acter from  the  rest  of  these  poems  in  that  the  misfortunes 
which  it  tells  of  are  those  not  of  a  person  but  of  a  place.     First  t 

the  poet  describes  an  ancient  building,  or  rather  group  of  build-      ^'^,  _^^ 
ings,  deserted,  roofless  and  tottering.     Then  he  goes  on  to  re-        I'loit^  ■^ 
fleet  that  these  buildings  w^ere  once  richly  adorned,  full  of  proud  "^  ^ 

warriors  and  gay  with  feasting — until  the  day  came  when  their 
defenders  were  annihilated.  As  it  is  clearly  stated  that  the 
buildings  were  of  stone,  and  stress  is  laid  on  the  marvellous 
skill  shown  in  their  construction,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 


44  Early  National  Poetry 

the  subject  is  drawn  from  one  of  the  Roman  cities  or  castles  in 
Britain.  The  reference  to  many  banqueting  halls  in  1.  24  seems 
to  point  to  a  place  of  considerable  size ;  and,  from  the  mention  of 
hot  baths  in  11.  39  ff.,  several  scholars  have  inferred  that  Bath 
is  intended.  But,  unfortunately,  so  much  of  the  text  is  lost 
that  the  description  cannot  clearly  be  made  out. 

A  brief  reference  should  be  added,  in  conclusion,  to  the  few 
traces  that  remain  of  the  religious  poetry  of  heathen  times. 
The  higher  forms  of  such  poetry,  such  as  the  hymns  used  in 
royal  sanctuaries  or  at  great  popular  festivals,  have  entirely 
perished.  The  songs  which  have  been  preserved  seem  to  be  in 
the  nature  of  incantations  for  securing  the  fertility  of  the  fields 
or  for  warding  off  witchcraft,  and  even  these  are  largely  trans- 
formed through  Christian  influence.  Some  of  them  occur  in 
descriptions  of  the  magical  ceremonies  at  which  they  were  sung. 
We  may  notice  especially  the  verses  used  for  the  blessing  of  the 
plough  when  the  first  furrow  is  drawn.  They  are  addressed  to 
"  Erce,  the  mother  of  the  earth,"  and  are  in  the  form  of  a  prayer 
that  the  Almighty  will  grant  her  rich  fields  full  of  barley  and 
wheat.  Then  the  earth  is  greeted  as  "mother  of  mankind." 
Other  verses,  less  affected  by  Christian  ideas,  speak  of  the  shafts 
shot  by  female  beings  (witches  or  valkyries)  which  ride  through 
the  air,  and  of  the  means  by  which  these  shafts  can  be  averted 
or  expelled.  Another  set  of  verses,  in  which  the  god  Woden  is 
mentioned,  describes  the  magic  properties  of  nine  herbs.  It  is 
probable  that  all  these  songs,  together  with  the  descriptions  of 
the  ceremonies  accompanying  them,  were  written  down  at  a 
comparatively  late  period,  when  the  heathen  practices  which 
survived  among  the  peasantry — apart  from  the  more  harmful 
species  of  magic — were  no  longer  regarded  as  dangerous. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Old  English  Christian   Poetry    ^  "^ 

ONLY  two  names  emerge  from  the  anonymity  which 
shrouds  the  bulk  of  Old  English  Christian  poetry, 
namely,  those  of  Caedmon  and  Cynewulf ;  and  in  the 
past,  practically  all  the  religious  poetry  we  possess  has  been  at- 
tributed to  one  or  other  of  these  two  poets.  But,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  majority  of  the  poems  to  be  considered  here  should 
rather  be  regarded  as  the  work  of  singers  whose  names  have 
perished,  as  folk-song,  as  manifestations  of  the  spirit  of  the 
people — in  the  same  sense  in  which  the  tale  of  Beowulf's  adven- 
tures embodied  the  aspirations  of  all  valiant  thegns,  or  the  epic  of 
Waldhere  summarised  the  popular  ideals  of  love  and  honour. 
The  subject  of  the  Christian  epic  is  indeed,  for  the  most  part, 
apparently,  foreign  and  even  at  times  Oriental:  the  heroes  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  saints  as  they  live  in  the 
legends  of  the  church,  furnish  the  theme.  The  method  of  treat- 
ment hardly  differs,  however,  from  that  followed  in  non-Chris- 
tian poetry ;  the  metrical  form  with  rare  exceptions  is  the  allitera- 
tive line  constructed  on  the  same  principles  as  in  Beowulf; 
Wyrd  has  become  the  spirit  of  pro\ddence,  Christ  and  His 
apostles  have  become  English  kings  or  chiefs  followed,  as  in 
feudal  duty  bound,  by  hosts  of  clansmen;  the  homage  paid  to 
the  Divine  Son  is  the  allegiance  due  to  the  scion  of  an  Anglian 
king,  comparable  to  that  paid  by  Beowulf  to  his  liege  lord 
Hygelac,  or  to  that  displayed  by  Byrhtnoth  on  the  banks  of  the 
Panta;  the  ideals  of  early  English  Christianity  do  not  differ 
essentially  from  those  of  English  paganism.  And  yet  there  is  a 
difference. 

The  Christianity  of  England  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  cen- 
turies, and  the  Latin  influences  brought  in  its  wake,  which 
inspired  the  poetry  under  discussion,  was  a  fusion,  a  commin- 

45 


/'l 


46  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

gling,  of  two  different  strains.  Accustomed  as  we  are  to  date 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  England  from  the  mission 
of  St.  Augustine,  we  are  apt  to  forget  that,  prior  to  the  landing 
of  the  Roman  missionary  on  the  shores  of  Kent,  Celtic  mis- 
sionaries from  the  islands  of  the  west  had  impressed  upon  the 
northern  kingdoms,  the  earliest  home  of  literary  culture  in 
these  islands,  a  form  of  Christianity  differing  in  many  respects 
from  the  more  theological  type  preached  and  practised  by 
St.  Augustine  and  his  followers.  Oswald,  the  martyr  king  of 
Northumbria,  had  been  followed  from  lona,  where,  in  his  youth, 
he  had  found  sanctuary,  by  Aidan,  the  apostle  of  the  north,  to 
whose  missionary  enterprise  was  due  the  conversion  of  the 
rude  north  Anglian  tribes.  The  monastery  at  Streoneshalh,  or 
Whitby,  for  ever  famous  as  the  home  of  Caedmon,  was  ruled 
by  the  abbess  Hild  in  accordance  with  Celtic,  not  Roman,  usage ; 
and  though,  at  the  synod  of  Whitby  in  664,  the  unity  of  the 
church  in  England  was  assured  by  the  submission  of  the  north- 
em  church  to  Roman  rule,  yet  the  influence  of  Celtic  Chris- 
tianity may  be  traced  in  some  of  the  features  that  most  charac- 
teristically distinguish  Christian  from  non-Christian  poetry.  It 
would,  for  instance,  be  hard  to  deny  that  the  depth  of  personal 
feeling  expressed  in  a  poem  like  The  Dream  of  the  Rood,  the  joy 
in  colour  attested  by  the  vivid  painting  of  blossom  and  leaf 
in  The  Phoenix  and  the  melancholy  sense  of  kinship  between 
the  sorrow  of  the  human  heart  and  the  moaning  of  the  grey 
cold  waves  that  make  The  Seafarer  a  human  wail,  are  elements 
contributed  to  English  poetry  by  the  Celts.  St.  Columba 
had  built  his  monastery  on  the  surf-beaten  shores  of  the  Atlan- 
tic, where  man's  dependence  on  nature  was  an  ever-present 
reality.  The  Celtic  monastery  was  the  home  of  a  brotherhood 
of  priests,  and  the  abbot  was  the  father  of  a  family  as  well  as  its 
ecclesiastical  superior.  The  Christian  virtues  of  humility  and 
meekness,  in  which  the  emissaries  of  the  British  church  found 
Augustine  so  deficient,  were  valued  in  lona  above  orthodoxy 
and  correctness  of  religious  observance;  and  the  simplicity  of 
ecclesiastical  organisation  characteristic  of  Celtic  Christianity, 
differing  from  the  comparatively  elaborate  nature  of  Roman 
organisation  and  ritual,  produced  a  simple  form  of  Christianity, 
readily  understood  by  the  unlettered  people  of  the  north.  It  is 
the  personal  relation  of  the  soul  to  God  the  Father,  the  human- 


Changes  wrought  by  Christianity  47 

ity  of  Christ,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  fellowship  of  saints, 
that  the  Celtic  missionaries  seem  to  have  preached  to  their  con- 
verts ;  and  these  doctrines  inspired  the  choicest  passages  of  Old 
English  religious  poetry,  passages  worthy  of  comparison  with 
some  of  the  best  work  of  a  later,  more  self-conscious  and  intro- 
spective age. 

This  subjectivity  is  a  new  feature  in  English  literature;  for 
non-Christian  English  poetry  is  sternly  epic.  Beowulf  is  a  tale 
of  brave  deeds  nobly  done,  with  but  few  reflections  concerning 
them.  At  rare  intervals,  scattered  here  and  there  throughout 
the  poem,  we  meet  with  some  touch  of  sentiment,  a  foreboding 
of  evil  to  come,  a  few  words  on  the  inexorable  character  of  fate, 
an  exhortation  to  do  great  deeds  so  that  in  Walhalla  the  chosen 
warrior  may  fare  the  better,  occasionally  a  half-Christian  refer- 
ence to  an  all-ruling  Father  (probably  the  addition  of  a  later 
and  Christian  hand) ;  but,  as  a  rule,  no  introspection  checks  the 
even  flow  of  narrative :  arma  virumque  cano.  When  Christian- 
ity became  the  source  of  poetic  inspiration,  we  find  the  purely  - 
epic  character  of  a  poem  modified  by  the  introduction  of  a  lyric 
element.  The  hero  no  longer  aspires  to  win  gold  from  an 
earthly  king;  his  prize  is  a  heavenly  crown,  to  be  won,  it  mav 
even  be,  in  spiritual  conflict;  the  glories  of  life  on  earth  are 
transitory;  earthly  valour  cannot  atone  for  the  stains  of  sin 
upon  the  soul ;  the  beauty  of  nature,  in  her  fairest  aspects,  can- 
not compare  with  the  radiance  of  a  better  land ;  the  terror  that 
lurks  waiting  for  the  evil-doer  upon  earth  fades  away  at  the 
contemplation  of  that  day  of  wrath  and  mourning  when  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  shall  deal  to  every  man  according  to  his 
deeds.  The  early  Christian  poet  does  not  sing  of  earthly  love ; 
we  have  no  erotic  poetry  in  pre-Conquest  England;  but  the 
sentiment  that  gives  life  to  the  poetry  of  Dante  and  ]\Iilton  is 
not  absent  from  the  best  of  our  early  poet's  attempts  at  reli- 
gious self-expression. 

Beyond  the  fact  that  his  name  seems  to  imply  that  he  was  of 
Celtic  descent,  we  have  no  knowledge  of  the  historical  Caedmon 
other  than  that  to  be  derived  from  the  often-quoted  passage 
in  Bede : 

In  the  monastery  of  this  abbess  [i.e.  the  abbess  Hild  at  Streone- 
shalh]  there  was  a  certain  brother  specially  distinguished  and 
honoured  by  divine  grace,  for  he  was  wont  to  make  songs  such 


48  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

as  tended  to  religion  and  piety.  Whatsoever  he  had  learned  from 
scholars  concerning  the  Scriptures  he  forthwith  decked  out  in  po- 
etic language  with  the  greatest  sweetness  and  fervour.  .  .  .  Many 
others,  also,  in  England,  imitated  him  in  the  composition  of  religious 
songs.  He  had  not,  indeed,  been  taught  of  men,  or  through  men, 
to  practise  the  art  of  song,  but  he  had  received  divine  aid,  and  his 
power  of  song  was  the  gift  of  God.  Wherefore  he  could  never 
compose  any  idle  or  false  song,  but  only  those  which  pertained  to 
religion  and  which  his  pious  tongue  might  fitly  sing.  The  man 
had  lived  in  the  world  till  the  time  that  he  was  of  advanced  age, 
and  had  never  learnt  any  poetry.  And  as  he  was  often  at  a  feast 
when  it  was  arranged,  to  promote  mirth,  that  they  should  all  in  turn 
sing  to  the  harp,  whenever  he  saw  the  harp  come  near  him  he 
arose  out  of  shame  from  the  feast  and  went  home  to  his  house. 
Having  done  so  on  one  occasion,  he  left  the  house  of  entertainment, 
and  went  out  to  the  stables,  the  charge  of  the  horses  having  been 
committed  to  him  for  that  night.  When,  in  due  time,  he  stretched 
his  limbs  on  the  bed  there  and  fell  asleep,  there  stood  by  him  in  a 
dream  a  man  who  saluted  him  and  greeted  him,  calling  on  him  by 
name,  "Caedmon,  sing  me  something."  Then  he  answered  and 
said,  "I  cannot  sing  anything,  and  therefore  I  came  out  from 
this  entertainment  and  retired  here,  as  I  know  not  how  to  sing." 
Again  he  who  spoke  to  him  said ,  "  Yet  you  could  sing. ' '  Then  said 
Caedmon,  "What  shall  I  sing?"  He  said,  " Sing  to  me  the  be- 
ginning of  all  things."  On  receiving  this  answer,  Caedmon  at  once 
began  to  sing,  in  praise  of  God  the  Creator,  verses  and  words  which 
he  had  never  heard,  the  order  of  which  is  as  follows  [quorum  iste  est 
sensus];  "Now  let  us  praise  the  guardian  of  the  heavenly  kingdom, 
the  power  of  the  Creator  and  the  counsel  of  His  mind,  the  works 
of  the  Father  of  glory:  how  He,  the  eternal  Lord,  originated  every 
marvel.  He,  the  holy  Creator,  first  created  the  heaven  as  a 
roof  for  the  children  of  the  earth,  then  the  eternal  Lord,  guardian 
of  the  human  race,  the  almighty  Ruler,  afterwards  fashioned  the 
world  as  a  soil  for  men."  Then  he  arose  from  his  sleep,  and  he  had 
firmly  in  his  memory  all  that  he  sang  while  asleep.  And  to  these 
words  he  soon  added  many  others,  in  the  same  style  of  song, 
worthy  of  God.     Book  iv,  ch.  24.      (Trans.  Miller.) 

Bede  goes  on  to  narrate  how,  the  matter  having  been  made 
known  to  the  abbess,  she  caused  the  best  scholars  to  test  the 
new  poet's  powers,  and  how,  when  it  was  proved  that  a  divine 
gift  had,  indeed,  been  bestowed  upon  the  neat-herd,  she  urged 
him  to  abandon  his  worldly  calling  and  become  a  monk. 
Which  thing  he  did,   and,   progressing  in  his  new  vocation, 


Caedmon's  Hymn  49 

all  that  he  could  learn  b\^  listening  he  pondered  in  his  heart  and, 
ruminating  like  some  clean  beast,  he  turned  it  into  the  sweetest  of 
songs.  His  song  and  his  music  were  so  delightful  to  hear,  that 
even  his  teachers  wrote  down  the  words  from  his  lips  and  learnt 
them.  He  sang  first  of  the  earth's  creation  and  the  beginning  of  man 
and  all  the  story  of  Genesis,  which  is  the  first  book  of  Moses,  and 
afterwards  about  the  departure  of  the  people  of  Israel  from  the 
land  of  Egypt  and  their  entry  into  the  land  of  promise ;  and  about 
many  other  narratives  in  the  books  of  the  canon  of  Scripture; 
and  about  Christ's  incarnation  and  His  passion  and  His  ascension 
into  heaven;  and  about  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the 
teaching  of  the  apostles ;  and  again  about  the  day  of  judgment  to 
come,  and  about  the  terror  of  hell  torment,  and  about  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  he  composed  many  a  song.  And  he  also  composed 
many  others  about  the  divine  blessings  and  judgments. 

While  making  due  allowance  for  a  possible  desire  on  Bede's  part 
to  extol  the  fame  of  an  earlier  contemporary — Bede  himself 
died  in  735 — we  should  remember  that  Bede  is  one  of  the  most 
careful  and  trustworthy  of  historians,  and  that  he  lived  not  far 
from  the  scene  of  Caedmon's  life;  it  would,  therefore,  appear 
that  we  have  not  sufficient  reason  for  rejecting  as  untrue  the 
enumeration  of  Caedmon's  literary  achievements  as  given  in 
the  above  passage. 

The  hymn  as  first  published  in  its  Northumbrian  form^  by 
Wanley  in  his  Catalogus  historico-criticus  (1705),  p  287,  as  canti- 
cum  illiid  Saxonicum  Caedmonis  a  Baeda  niemoratum;  and 
from  that  day  to  this  it  has  been  regarded  by  the  majority  of 
scholars  as  the  genuine  work  of  Caedmon. 

Bede  gives  a  Latin  version  of  the  lines,  which  corresponds 
very  closely  to  the  original,  but  which  he  introduces  thus.  Caed- 
mon coepit  cantare .  .  .  versus  quorum  iste  est  sensus;  and,  in  conclu- 
sion, he  reiterates:  Hie  est  sensus,  non  autem  or  do  ipse  verborum, 
as  if  he  had  given  a  merely  approximate  rendering  of  his  ori- 
ginal. Much  discussion  has  hinged  upon  the  exact  meaning  to 
be  attached  to  the  words  sensus  and  ordo,  though  Bede  is  evi- 
dently alluding  merely  to  the  difficulty  of  reproducing  poetry 
in  prose,  for  he  continues :  neqiie  enini  possunt  carmina  quamvis 
optime  composita,  ex  alia  in  aliam  linguam  ad  verbum  sine  detri- 
mento  sui  decoris  ac  dignitatis  transferri.  The  West  Saxon 
version  of  the   lines  is  preserv^ed    in  the   English  translation 

'  See  Cambridge  Univ.  MS.  Lib.  Kk,  5,  16,  Fol.  128. 


50  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History,^  with  the  introductory  com- 
ment: "f-ara  endebyrdnis  J'is  is."  Now  "  endebyrdnis "  simply 
means  ordo,  and  it  may  be  safe  to  assume  that  both  Bede's 
Latin  version  and  the  West  Saxon  version  are  attempts  at 
translation  from  the  original  Northumbrian. 

Bede's  detailed  enumeration  of  Caedmon's  other  achieve- 
ments must  be  held  responsible  for  the  attribution  to  Caedmon 
of  a  large  number  of  religious  poems  of  a  similar  character 
extant  only  in  West  Saxon  form,  in  the  Bodl.  MS.  Junius  xi,  an 
opinion  which,  in  the  light  of  modem  critical  scholarship,  is  no 
longer  tenable.  Indeed,  no  one  would  to-day  seriously  main- 
tain even  that  these  poems  are  all  by  one  author;  it  is  more 
likely,  as  we  shall  see,  that  more  than  one  writer  has  had  a  hand 
in  each.  But  the  fact  that  it  is  impossible  to  claim  these  par- 
ticular poems  for  Caedmon  does  not  militate  against  the  proba- 
bility of  his  having  composed  similar,  though,  perhaps,  shorter 
pieces,  which  may  have  been  worked  upon  later  by  more  schol- 
arly hands.  Religious  poetry,  sung  to  the  harp  as  it  passed 
from  hand  to  hand,  must  have  flourished  in  the  monastery  of  the 
abbess  Hild,  and  the  kernel  of  Bede's  story  concerning  the  birth 
of  our  earliest  poet  must  be  that  the  brethren  and  sisters  on 
that  bleak  northern  shore  spoke  "  to  each  other  in  psalms  and 
hymns  and  spiritual  songs." 

The  most  important  of  the  religious  poems  at  one  time  at- 
tributed to  Caedmon  are  Genesis,  Exodus,  Daniel. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  historian  of  literature.  Genesis 
is  the  most  interesting  of  these.  It  is  a  poetical  paraphrase  of 
the  first  of  the  canonical  books  in  the  Old  Testament,  extending 
to  the  story  of  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac  by  Abraham.  The  poem 
opens  with  the  praise  of  the  Creator  in  a  style  recalling  the 
lines  quoted  by  Bede.  The  poet  then  proceeds  to  relate  the 
revolt  and  fall  of  the  angels  (which,  according  to  ancient  theol- 
ogy, necessitated  the  creation  of  man  to  fill  the  vacant  place 
in  heaven),  and  then  the  creation  of  the  earth,  in  accordance 
with  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Vulgate.  At  this  point  we 
have  a  repetition  of  the  first  motif,  the  fall  of  the  angels;  Satan, 
in  anger  at  having  fallen  from  his  high  estate,  aveilgis  himself 
on  God  by  tempting  man ;  and  the  rest  of  the  narrative  proceeds 
in  accordance  with  the  Biblical  narrative. 

>  Cf .  post,  Chapter  vi. 


"Genesis"  51 

Attention  has  been  drawn  to  metrical  and  linguistic  pecul- 
iarities distinguishing  the  second  version  (Genesis  B)  of  the  fall  of 
the  angels  and  the  temptation  (11.  235-851)  from  the  rest  of  the 
poem ;  but  it  remained  for  Sievers  to  point  out  that  this  obvi- 
ously interpolated  passage  was  borrowed  from  a  foreign  source, 
that  the  structure  of  the  alliterative  lines  resembled  that  in 
vogue  amongst  continental  Saxons,  and  that  the  vocabulary  and 
syntax  were  now  and  again  Old  Saxon,  not  English.  Relying 
upon  the  accuracy  of  his  observation  in  detail,  he  then  hazarded 
the  bold  conjecture  that  these  lines  were  an  Anglicised  version 
of  a  portion  of  an  Old  Saxon  paraphrase  of  the  Old  Testament, 
long  lost,  composed  by  the  author  of  the  Old  Saxon  paraphrase 
of  the  New  Testament,  commonly  known'  as  the  Heliand. 
This  brilliant  conjecture  has  since  been  confirmed  by  the  dis- 
covery in  the  Vatican  library  of  portions  of  the  Old  Saxon 
original,  which  dates  from  the  latter  portion  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury. ^  One  of  the  Old  Saxon  fragments  so  found  corresponded 
to  a  passage  in  the  Old  English  Genesis.  Caedmonian  author- 
ship is,  therefore,  rendered  impossible  for  the  interpolation, 
and  the  scholarship  of  the  author  seems  to  preclude  the  possi- 
bility that  an  unlearned  man  was  the  author  of  the  rest  of  the 
poem,  though  Caedmon's  hymns  may  have  been  familiar  to, 
and  used  by,  the  writer.  It  matters  little  whether  we  assume 
the  interpolated  passage  to  be  the  work  of  an  Old  Saxon  monk 
resident  in  England,  but  unable  to  dissociate  himself  entirely 
from  native  habits  of  speech,  or  whether  we  look  upon  it  as 
a  somewhat  imperfect  translation  from  Old  Saxon  by  some 
Old  English  monk  whom  professional  duties — we  need  only 
think  of  Boniface — had  brought  into  contact  with  the  learning 
and  literature  of  the  continent.  At  any  rate  it  is  an  early, 
and  a  pleasing,  instance  of  the  fruitful  exchange  of  literary 
ideas  between  two  great  nations. 

The  relative  age  of  the  two  poems  is  a  matter  still  under 
discussion.  Genesis  B  cannot  have  been  composed  earlier  than 
the  second  half  of  the  ninth  century,  since  we  know  that  the 
author  of  the  Heliand,  upon  whose  work  it  is  based,  wrote  in 
response  to  a  command  from  King  Lewis  the  Pious ;  but  w^e  have 
hardly  any  data  for  determining  whether  it  is  earlier  or  later  in 
date  of  composition  than   Genesis  A.     Its  author,   like  the 

>Cf.  the  Latin  Praefatio  prefixed  to  the  Heliand. 


52  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

author  of  the  Heliand,  apparently  made  use  of  the  works  of 
bishop  Avitus  of  Vienne,  the  medieval  Latin  poet. 

Genesis  A  contains  not  a  few  passages  illustrative  of  that 
blending  of  heathen  and  Christian  elements  which  is  character- 
istic of  Old  English  religious  poetry.  The  description  of  Old 
Testament  fights  shows  that  the  spirit  of  the  author  of  the 
Battle  of  Finnsburh  is  to  be  found  beneath  the  veneer  of  Chris- 
tianity. And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  description  of  the  dove, 
seeking  rest  and  finding  none,  could  only  be  the  work  of  a 
Christian  poet.  The  tenderness  of  feeling  for  the  dumb  creation 
and  the  joy  in  "rest  after  toil"  which  it  expresses  are  due  to 
Christian  influences  upon  the  imaginative  powers  of  an  Old 
English  scop. 

Genesis  B  contains  some  fine  poetic  passages.  The  character 
of  Satan  is  admirably  conceived,  and  the  familiar  theme  of  a 
lost  paradise  is  set  forth  in  dignified  and  dramatic  language 
not  unworthy  of  the  height  of  its  great  argurnent.  In  the  dark 
regions  and  "swart  mists"  of  Hell,  Satan  and  his  host,  swept 
thither  by  the  Lord  of  Heaven  himself,  indulge  in  a  joy  that  is 
purely  heathen,  in  contemplating  the  vengeance  to  be  taken 
on  the  race  that  has  supplanted  them  in  the  favour  of  God.^ 

Exodus  is  a  paraphrase  of  a  portion  only  of  the  book  from 
which  it  takes  its  name,  i.e.  the  passage  of  the  Israelites  through 
the  Red  Sea  and  the  destruction  of  the  Egyptians.  Part  of  the 
poem,2  in  which  the  ancestors  of  the  Israelites  are  enumerated 
and  described,  is,  possibly,  the  work  of  a  second  poet,  as  it  is 
simpler  in  style  than  the  body  of  the  poem,  and  the  theme  is 
not  entirely  relevant;  there  is  certainly  a  break  after  1.  445. 
The  distinctive  feature  of  the  poem  is  the  beauty  and  vigour 
with  which  martial  scenes  are  depicted.  Here,  again,  the  feeling 
of  the  old  epic  writers,  under  another  guise,  is  clearly  apparent. 
Not  even  in  Judith  or  The  Battle  of  Maldon  do  w^e  find  more  suc- 
cessful attempts  in  dramatic  grouping ;  the  din  and  clash  of  bat- 
tle, though  no  actual  battle  is  described,  the  war- wolf  and  the 
raven  greedy  for  prey,  the  heaving  of  the  shields,  the  brandish- 
ing of  battle-bills,  recall  the  martial  tone  of  the  best  war-poetry 

'  For  a  discussion  of  the  possible  relation  between  the  Satan  of  Genesis  B 
and  the  Satan  of  Paradise  Lost,  cf.  Stopford  Brooke,  Early  English  Litera- 
ture, vol.  II,  pp.  10 1  ff.,  and  Morley,  English  Writers,  vol.  11,  p.  109. 

2  LI.  362-445. 


"Crist  and  Satan"  53 

of  our  battle-loving  ancestors.  The  author  of  Genesis  A  writes 
as  though  afraid  to  depart  even  from  the  wording  of  his  origi- 
nal ;  the  author  of  Exodus,  possessed  by  the  lust  for  word-paint- 
ing, draws  upon  an  exuberant  imagination  steeped  in  reminis- 
cences of  brave  blows  and  doughty  deeds,  not  even  nominally 
Christian. 

The  poem  entitled  Daniel  need  not  detain  us.  After  a  his- 
torical introduction,  for  which  the  poet  is  not  indebted  to  his 
source,  he  versifies  selected  portions  of  the  book  of  Daniel.'^ 
The  poem  has  one  new  feature.  The  author  uses  his  material 
for  homiletic  purposes  and  inculcates  certain  moral  virtues:  •-'' 
for  instance,  the  duty  of  humility  and  obedience  to  the  will  of 
God.  Daniel  is  transmitted  in  the  Junian  codex.  A  portion 
of  the  subject,  dealing  with  the  episode  of  the  three  children 
in  the  fiery  furnace,  is  transmitted  also  in  the  Exeter  Book,  in  a 
short  poem  of  75  lines  called  Azarias,  in  which  are  the  beautiful 
lines  descriptive  of  the  change  wrought  by  the  appearance  of 
the  angel  of  the  Lord ; 

Then  'twas  in  the  oven  when  the  angel  came, 
Windy  cool  and  winsome,  to  the  weather  likest 
When  is  sent  to  earth  in  the  summer  tide. 
Dropping  down  of  dew-rain  at  the  dawn  of  day.^ 

Three  Minor  poems,  originally  thought  to  be  one,  and  by 
Grein  called  Crist  and  Satan,  should  be  mentioned  here,  since, 
by  reason  of  their  being  transmitted  in  the  codex  MS.  Bodl.  xi, 
they,  together  wdth  the  three  more  important  poems  just  dis- 
cussed, have  been  attributed  to  Caedmon.  The  first  of  them 
deals  with  the  subject  of  the  Fall  of  the  Angels,  the  second  with 
Christ's  Harrowing  of  Hell  and  His  resurrection,  together  with 
a  brief  account  of  His  ascension  and  coming  to  judgment,  the 
third  with  Christ's  Temptation.  Only  the  first  is  complete. 
All  three,  probably,  belong  to  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  and 
all  have  a  homiletic  tendency.  The  second  has  been  compared 
with  the  Crist  of  Cynewulf .  with  which  it  is  linked  by  virtue  of 
theme  as  well  as  by  style.  The  description  of  the  last  judgment 
suggests  the  more  impressive  picture  of  that  event  contained 
in  Crist,  and  the  Harrowing  of  Hell  recalls,  and  can  sustain 

1  Up  to  chapter  v.,  22.  2  Stopford  Brooke's  version. 


54  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

comparison  with,  examples  of  later  more  elaborate  treatment  of 
the  same  subject.  By  their  religious  fervour,  and  by  their 
apparently  ruder  form,  it  is  possible  that  these  poems  are  nearer 
to  the  original  body  of  Caedmon's  work  than  the  poems  pre- 
viously discussed. 

The  finest  of  all  the  poems  erroneously  attributed  to  Caed- 
mon  is  the  fragment  entitled  Judith.  As  there  seems  to  be 
ground  for  supposing  that  this  beautiful  fragment,  w^orthy  of 
the  skill  of  a  scop  whose  Christianity  had  not  sufficed  to  quell 
his  martial  instincts,  his  pride  in  battle  and  his  manly  prowess, 
is  of  later  date  than  has  been  thought  by  certain  historians,  it  is 
dealt  with  in  a  later  chapter  of  the  present  volume. 

Turning  to  Cynewulf  and  the  poems  that  may  be,  or  have 
been,  attributed  to  him,  we  are  on  somewhat  safer  ground. 
The  personality  of  the  poet  is,  indeed,  wrapped  in  an  obscurity 
hardly  less  deep  than  that  which  hides  Caedmon.  The  only 
truth  at  which  we  can  arrive  concerning  him  is  that  he  must  be 
the  author  of  four  well-known  poems,  since  he  marked  them 
as  his  own  by  the  insertion  of  his  signature  in  runes.  Conjec- 
ture has  been  busy  to  prove  that  he  may  have  been  identical 
with  a  certain  abbot  of  Peterborough,  w^ho  lived  about  the 
A^'ear  looo.  But  this  hypothesis  has  ceased  to  be  tenable  since 
^  we  know  that  the  West  Saxon  transcript  of  his  poems,  the  only 
form  in  which  the  accredited  ones  are  preserved,  cannot  be  the 
original;  moreover,  the  abbot  invariably  spelt  his  name  Cin- 
wulf .  Equally  impossible  is  the  theory  that  he  was  Cynewulf, 
bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  who  died  in  781  or  783.  The  later  lived 
in  troublous  times,  and  nothing  we  know  of  his  life  agrees  with 
inferences  we  may  reasonably  draw  from  autobiographical 
allusions  in  Cynewulf's  poems.  A  theory  that  the  author  was 
certainly  of  Northumbrian  origin  was,  in  the  first  instance, 
based  upon  an  erroneous  interpretation  of  the  first  riddle  in 
a  collection  of  Old  English  Riddles  long  attributed  to  him. 
Dietrich  gave  the  solution  as  Coenwulf,  the  supposed  North- 
umbrian form  of  the  name  Cynewulf.  But,  apart  from  the 
fact  that  syllabic  riddles  are  not  known  in  Old  English  litera- 
ture, we  must  remember  that,  on  the  four  occasions  when  the 
poet  spelt  his  own  name,  he  used  one  or  other  of  two  forms,  i.e. 
Cynew^ulf  or  Cynwulf.  Both  these  forms  must  go  back  to  an 
older  one  in  which  the  medial  e  appeared  as  i.     In  Northumbria, 


Cynewulf  55 

this  medial  i  became  e,  roughly  speaking,  about  800 ;  in  IMercia 
the  transition  was  practically  accomplished  by  750.  This  fact 
lends  colour  to  the  hypothesis  of  Wiilker  that  Cynewulf  was  a 
Mercian,  a  theory  which  A.  S.  Cook  has  adopted  in  support  of  a 
conjecture  of  his  own,  namely,  that  the  poet  was  a  certain 
Cynulf,  an  ecclesiastic  who  was  present,  as  his  signature  to  a 
decree  proves,  at  a  synod  held  at  Clovesho  in  803.  The  synod 
was  an  important  one,  in  so  far  as  at  it  the  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury w^as  recognised  as  primate  of  the  English  church.  Cynulf 's 
signature,  following  close  upon  that  of  the  bishop  of  Dunwich, 
leads  A.  S.  Cook  to  the  further  assumption  that  he  was  a  priest 
in  the  diocese  of  Dunwich,  where  he  would  have  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  studying  those  sea-effects  the  description  of  which  is 
so  characteristic  of  his  poetry.  Whether  or  not  Cynewulf  is  to 
be  identified  with  this  ecclesiastic,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
assumption  of  Mercian  origin  would  do  away  with  one  or  two 
difficulties  which  the  assumption  of  Northumbrian  origin  in 
the  narrower  sense  leaves  unsolved.  During  the  latter  half  of 
the  eighth  century,  Northumbria  was,  politically,  too  troubled 
to  be  a  "kindly  nurse"  of  letters,  though,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  might  be  asserted  that  the  political  unrest  of  Northumbria 
may  be  reflected  in  the  melancholy  nature  and  "autum- 
nal grace"  of  Cynewulf 's  poetry.  Again,  though  there  is  no 
doubt  that  a  Mercian  origin  would  facilitate  the  transcription 
of  poems  into  West  Saxon,  yet  we  have  West  Saxon  tran- 
scripts of  other  originally  Northumbrian  poems,  a  fact 
which  affects  the  value  of  geographical  arguments  of  this 
nature. 

The  most  valid,  albeit  negative,  argument  against  narrow- 
ing the  term  Northumbrian  to  mean  simply  non-West  Saxon, 
hence,  possibly,  Mercian,  is  that  we  have  no  definite  evidence 
for  the  existence  of  a  Mercian  school  of  poetry,  such  as  the 
development  of  a  poet  like  Cynewulf  seems  to  postulate.  His 
undisputed  work  is  of  too  mature  a  character  to  seem  to  be  the 
spontaneous  product  of  a  self-made  singer,  unfostered  by 
literary  society.  Moreover,  he  excels  more  especially  in  de- 
scriptions of  the  sea  and  the  sea-coast,  a  point  in  which  a 
dweller  inland  might  easily  have  been  deficient.  Notable  in 
this  respect  are  Elene,  which  we  know  to  be  his,  and  Andreas, 
which  is  very  possibly  his.     The  following  Hnes,  for  instance, 


56  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

must  surely  be  the  work  of  one  whose  daily  life  had  been  spent 
in  contact  with  the  sea : 

Over  the  sea  marges 
Hourly  urged  they  on  .  .  .  the  wave-riding  horses. 
Then  they  let  o'er  Fifel's  wave  foaming  stride  along 
Steep-stemmed  rushers  of  the  sea.     Oft  withstood  the  bulwark, 
O'er  the  surging  of  the  waters,  swinging  strokes  of  waves. ^ 

Further,  assuming  Guthlac  B  to  be  by  Cynewulf,^  we  may 
note  the  fact  that  the  fen-journey  of  the  original  has  been  trans- 
formed into  a  sea-voyage,  and  this  would  appear  to  tell  against 
an  East  Anglian  authorship. 

The  final  result  of  much  discussion  seems  to  resolve  itself 
into  this:  that  Cynewulf  was  not  a  West  Saxon,  but,  probably, 
a  Northumbrian,  though  Mercian  origin  is  not  impossible;  and 
that  he  wrote  towards  the  end  of  the  eighth  century.  This 
latter  point  will  find  further  support  when  we  proceed  to  dis- 
cuss the  indvidual  poems. 

We  know  nothing  else  concerning  Cynewulf  with  any  degree 
of  certainty.  We  infer  from  the  nature  of  his  poetry  that  he 
was  of  a  deeply  religious  nature,  but  it  is  hazardous  to  deduce 
the  character  of  a  poet  from  his  apparently  subjective  work;  we 
learn  that  he  lived  to  an  old  age,  which  he  felt  to  be  a  burden; 
that,  at  some  time  of  his  life,  he  had  known  the  favour  of  princes 
and  enjoyed  the  gifts  of  kings;  he  must  have  been  the  thegn  or 
scop  of  some  great  lord,  and  not  merely  an  itinerant  singer  or 
gleeman,  as  some  critics  have  held.  He  was  a  man  of  learning, 
certainly  a  good  Latin  scholar,  for  some  of  his  work  is  based 
upon  Latin  originals.  Critics  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  period 
of  life  in  which  he  occupied  himself  with  the  composition  of  re- 
ligious poetry,  nor  as  to  the  chronological  order  of  his  works. 
Some  scholars  assume  that,  after  leading  until  old  age  the  life 
of  a  man  of  the  world,  and  attaining  some  distinction  as  an 
author  of  secular  poetry — of  which,  by  the  way,  if  the  Riddles 
are  rejected,  we  have  no  trace — he  became  converted  by  the 
vision  described  in  The  Dream  of  the  Rood,  and  devoted  himself 
ever  afterwards  to  religious  poetry,  the  last  consummate  effort 
of  his  poetic  powers  being  Elene.     There  are  two  drawbacks 

'  Stopford  Brooke's  version.  2  See  p.  64. 


"Crist"  57 

to  this  theory,  the  first  being  that  we  cannot  base  biographical 
deductions  with  any  certainty  upon  a  poem  Uke  The  Dream 
of  the  Rood,  which  we  have  no  historical  grounds  for  claiming 
as  Cynewulf's;  the  second,  that  it  is  difficult  to  assume  that  a 
man  advanced  in  years  could  have  composed  so  large  a  quantity 
of  religious  poetry  as,  even  after  the  most  rigid  exclusion  of  the 
unlikely,  we  are  compelled  to  attribute  to  him.  Other  critics, 
hold  that  The  Dream  of  the  Rood  was  followed  immediately  by 
Elene,  and  that  all  other  Cynewulfian  poems  were  written 
later.  If  that  be  so,  the  poet's  art  must  have  undergone  very 
rapid  deterioration,  for  all  the  other  poems  attributed  to  him 
are  inferior  to  Elene  and  The  Dream. 

The  poems  marked  as  Cynewulf's  own  by  the  insertion  of 
runes  are  Crist,  Juliana,  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles  and  Elene. 
Crist  is  the  first  poem  in  the  codex  known  as  the  Exeter  Book,  a 
manuscript  preserved  in  the  cathedral  library  at  Exeter.  The 
lirst  eight  pages,  and,  consequently,  the  opening  portion  of  Crist, 
are  missing.  The  manuscript  probably  dates  from  the  eleventh 
century  and  is,  apparently,  written  throughout  by  one  and  the 
same  hand.  Juliana  is  contained  in  the  same  book,  and,  of 
other  poems  attributed  to  Cynewulf,  and  certainly  belonging 
to  his  school,  Guthlac,  Andreas  and  The  Phoenix  will  be  men- 
tioned below. 

Crist  falls  into  three  clearly  defined  parts,  the  first  dealing 
with  the  advent  of  Christ  on  earth, 'the  second  with  His  ascen- 
sion, the  third  with  His  second  advent  to  judge  the  world. 
The  second  part  contains  Cynewulf's  signature  in  runes.  ^  The 
unity  of  the  poem  has  not  remained  unquestioned.  Scholars 
have  brought  forward  linguistic  and  metrical  arguments  to 
prove  that  we  are  dealing  not  with  one  but  with  three  poems ; 
that  source,  theme  and  treatment  differ  so  greatly  as  to  render 
the  assumption  of  a  common  authorship  for  all  three  incredible, 
and  to  reduce  us  to  the  necessity  of  denying  authorship  by 
Cynewulf  to  any  but  the  second  part,  which  is  signed  by  him. 
Almost  the  best  argument  brought  for^vard  by  these  iconoclastic 
critics  is  the  undoubted  fact  that  Cynewulf's  signature  occurs, 
as  a  rule,  near  the  conclusion  of  a  poem,  not  in  the  middle,  and 
that  it  does  so  occur  towards  the  end  of  the  second  part.  A 
further  valid  argument  against  the  unity  of  the  poem  might  be 

»L1.  797  ff. 


7 


5^  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

derived  from  the  theme  of  the  second  part.  This  deals  with 
Christ's  reception  in  Heaven  after  His  sojourn  on  earth,  and 
only  by  some  stretch  of  imagination  can  the  event  be  looked 
upon  as  parallel  to  His  twofold  coming  on  earth.  Yet  critics 
have  discovered  a  link-  with  the  first  part  in  a  passage  definitely 
referring  to  Christ's  first  advent,  ^  and  the  references  to  the  last 
judgment  in  the  runic  passage  have  been  regarded  as  an  antici- 
pation of  the  third  part.  The  question  is  a  nice  one  and  is  not, 
at  present,  capable  of  solution.  If  we  assume  the  unity  of  the 
poem,  Cynew^ulf  is,  undoubtedly,  the  author;  if  we  deny  it,  we 
are  confronted  with  the  further  difficulty  of  determining  the 
authorship  of  the  first  and  third  parts.  From  a  literary  point 
of  view,  Crist  is,  perhaps,  the  most  interesting  of  Cynewulf's 
poems.  It  illustrates  fully  the  influence  of  Latin  Christianity 
upon  English  thought.  The  subject  is  derived  from  Latin 
homilies  and  hymns:  part  i,  the  advent  of  Christ,  seems  to  be 
largely  based  upon  the  Roman  Breviary,  part  ii  upon  the  ascen- 
sion sermon  of  Pope  Gregory,  part  iii  upon  an  alphabetic  Latin 
hymn  on  the  last  judgment,  quoted  by  Bede  in  De  Arte  Metrica. 
In  addition,  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  and  Gregory's  tenth 
homily  have  furnished  suggestions.  Yet  the  poet  is  no  mere 
versifier  of  Latin  theology.  We  are  confronted,  for  the  first 
time  in  English  literature,  with  the  product  of  an  original 
mind.  The  author  has  transmuted  the  material  derived  from 
his  sources  into  the  passionate  out-pourings  of  personal  religious 
feeling.  The  doctrines  interspersed  are,  of  course,  medieval 
in  tone :  one  of  the  three  signs  by  which  the  blessed  shall  realise 
their  possession  of  God's  favour  is  the  joy  they  will  derive  from 
the  contemplation  of  the  sufferings  of  the  damned.  But,  for 
the  most  part,  the  poem  is  a  series  of  choric  hymns  of  praise, 
of  imaginative  passages  descriptive  of  visions  not  less  sublime 
than  that  of  The  Dream  of  the  Rood. 

Crist  is  followed  immediately  in  the  Exeter  Book  by  the  poem 
entitled  Juliana.  This  is  an  Old  English  version  of  the  Acta  S. 
Julianae  virginis  martyris.  The  proof  of  Cynewulfian  author- 
ship lies,  as  has  already  been  said,  in  the  insertion  of  his  name 
in  runes.  The  martyr  is  supposed  to  have  lived  about  the  time 
of  the  emperor  Maximian.  She,  of  course,  successfully  over- 
>L1.  586-599. 


"Andreas"  59 

comes  all  the  minor  temptations  with  which  she  is  confronted, 
including  an  offer  of  marriage  with  a  pagan,  and,  finally,  having 
routed  the  devil  in  person,  endures  martyrdom  by  the  sword. 

Equally  insignificant  considered  as  poetry,  but  of  the 
utmost  importance  as  a  link  in  a  chain  of  literary  evidence,  are 
the  lines  known  as  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles.  The  title  suffi- 
ciently indicates  the  contents.  The  poem  is  preser\^ed  in  the 
Vercelli  Book;  a  codex  containing  both  verse  and  prose,  and, 
for  some  unknown  reason,  in  the  possession  of  the  chapter  of 
Vercelli,  north  Italy.  The  first  ninety-five  lines,  which  follow 
immediately  after  the  poem  called  Andreas,  occupy  fol.  52  b- 
53  b.  They  were  considered  an  anonymous  fragment  until  Napier 
discovered  that  a  set  of  verses  on  fol.  54  a,  which  had  hitherto 
been  assumed  to  have  no  connection  with  the  lines  preceding 
them,  were,  in  reality,  a  continuation  of  the  lines  on  fol.  53 
and  that  they  contained  the  name  of  Cynew^ulf  in  runes.  The 
authenticity  of  Fata  Apostolorum  was,  thereby,  raised  above 
dispute;  but  the  gain  to  Cynewulf's  literary  reputation  was  not 
great. 

Yet  critics,  anxious  to  vindicate  the  claim  of  our  greatest 
pre-Conquest  poet  to  whatever  poetry  may  seem  worthy  of  him, 
have  tried  to  twist  the  occurrence  of  Cynewulf's  signature  in 
The  FMes  of  the  Apostles  into  an  additional  plea  in  favour  of  his 
ai^^^Bip  of  Andreas,  the  poem  immediately  preceding  it  in 
tnt^JHr//  Book.  This  poem  deals  with  the  missionary  labours 
of  Sff'fflferew,  and  is  based,  probably,  upon  a  lost  Latin  version 
of  a  Greek  original  (in  Paris) ,  the  Tlpa^ei?  'AvSpsov  xai  M-ar- 
daiov.  St.  Andrew  is  commanded  by  God  to  go  to  the  assist- 
ance of  St.  Matthew,  who  is  in  danger  of  death  at  the  hands  of 
the  Mermedonians,  cannibal  Ethiopians.  He  sets  out  in  a  boat 
manned  by  our  Lord  and  two  angels.  Having  landed  safely, 
he  becomes  of  great  spiritual  comfort  to  the  captive,  but  is 
himself  taken  prisoner  and  tortured.  He  delivers  himself  and 
converts  the  Mermedonians  by  working  a  miracle.  The  dis- 
tinguishing feature  of  the  poem,  which  links  it  with  passages 
in  Beowulf  and  The  Seafarer,  is  the  skill  with  w^hich  its  author 
gives  expression  to  his  passion  for  the  sea.  Andreas  is  a  ro- 
mance of  the  sea.  Nowhere  else  are  to  be  found  such  superb 
descriptions  of  the  raging  storm,  of  the  successful  struggle  of 
man  with  the  powers  of  the  deep.     It  illustrates,  moreov^er,  in 


6o  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

an  unusual  degree,  the  blending  of  the  old  spirit  with  the  new. 
St.  Andrew,  though  professedly  a  Christian  saint,  is,  in  reality, 
a  viking;  though  crusader  in  name  he  is  more  truly  a  seafarer  on 
adventure  bent.  The  Christ  he  serves  is  an  aetheling,  the 
apostles  are  folctogan — captains  of  the  people — and  temporal 
victory,  not  merely  spiritual  triumph,  is  the  goal. 

Could  it  be  proved  that  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles  is  merely 
an  epilogue  to  the  longer  poem  preceding  it,  the  adventures  of 
one  of  the  twelve  being  related  in  greater  detail  than  is  vouch- 
safed to  them  treated  collectively,  we  should  be  enabled  to  at- 
tribute with  greater  certainty  than  is  otherwise  possible  the 
poem  of  Andreas  to  Cynewulf ,  an  author  of  whom,  on  aesthetic 
grounds,  it  is  not  unworthy.  Its  authenticity  would  then  be 
vouched  for  by  the  runic  signature  contained  in  the  shorter 
poem.  This  hypothesis  is,  however,  more  ingenious  than  con- 
vincing. The  poem  Andreas,  as  it  stands,  lacks,  indeed,  as 
definite  a  conclusion  as  many  other  poems  possess;  there  is,  for 
instance,  no  finit  or  "amen"  to  denote  the  end,  but,  unfortu- 
nately for  the  inventors  of  the  hypothesis,  The  Fates  of  the 
Apostles  does  not  lack  a  beginning;  nor  are  St  Andrew's  labours 
omitted  from  the  general  review  of  the  good  works  done  by  the 
twelve,  which  might  possibly  have  been  expected  had  the 
author  of  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles  also  been  the  author  of  the 
longer  history  of  St.  Andrew.  There  is  more  ground  for  accept- 
ing a  theory  originated  by  Sievers  with  regard  to  the  last  six- 
teen lines  of  the  fragment  containing  Cynewulf 's  signature, 
discovered  by  Napier.  In  the  opinion  of  Sievers  these  sixteen 
lines  would  not  only  be  an  inordinately  lengthy  conclusion  to 
so  short  a  poem  as  The  Fates,  but  they  are  superfluous  in  so  far 
as  they  are  a  mere  repetition  of  the  lines  which  had  preceded 
the  runic  passage.  He  would,  therefore,  wish  to  see  in  them  the 
conclusion  of  some  lost  poem  of  Cynewulf,  and  only  accidentally 
attached  to  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles.  Upholders  of  the  theory 
of  the  Cynewulfian  authorship  of  Andreas  might  be  able  to 
claim  them  as  the  missing  conclusion  to  that  poem,  and  the  fact 
of  their  being  attached  to  a  piece  of  undoubtedly  Cynewulfian 
work  might  strengthen  the  attribution  of  Andreas  to  our  poet. 
But,  after  fully  weighing  the  arguments  on  either  side,  we 
must  confess  that  the  evidence  so  far  forthcoming  does  not 
suffice  for  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  question. 


"Elene"  6i 

Elene  is,  undoubtedly,  Cynewulf's  masterpiece.  The  sub- 
ject is  contained  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum  oi  3  May.  Grimm  also 
referred  to  the  same  subject  as  occurring  in  the  Legenda  aurca 
of  Jacobus  a  Voragine.  It  is  impossible  to  decide  whether  the 
legend  first  reached  England  in  a  Latin  or  in  an  older  Greek 
form.  The  story  is  that  of  the  discovery  of  the  true  cross  by 
Helena,  the  mother  of  the  emperor  Constant! ne.  The  search 
carried  to  so  successful  a  conclusion  was  instituted  by  the  em- 
peror in  consequence  of  the  famous  vision,  the  sign  of  a  cross 
in  the  sky  bearing  the  inscription  In  hoc  signo  vinces.  ]\Iuch 
history  hangs  upon  this  tale.  Its  immediate  importance  for  us 
is  that  the  conversion  of  the  emperor  by  this  means  became  the 
starting-point  for  the  adoration  of  the  cross :  the  symbol  which 
had  hitherto  been  one  of  ignominy  became  one  of  triumph-' 
and  glory.  The  festival  of  the  exaltation  of  the  cross  was  estab- 
lished in  the  western  church  in  701,  in  consequence  of  the  sup- 
posed discovery  in  Rome  of  a  particle  of  the  true  cross.  This 
event  is  duly  recorded  by  Bede  in  De  sex  aetatibus  saecuU,  the 
news  having,  no  doubt,  been  brought  to  England  by  Abbot 
Ceolfrid,  who  was  in  Rome  at  the  time.  At  any  rate,  if  this 
event  be  considered  too  remote  to  have  influenced  Cynewulf's 
choice  of  a  subject,  we  may  remember  that  he  probably  lived 
through  a  part  of  the  iconoclastic  controversy  which  raged 
from  726  to  842,  and  which  contributed  perhaps  more  than 
anything  else  to  an  increased  veneration  of  the  cross.  Indeed, 
the  poetry  of  the  cross  in  England  has  been  regarded  as  the  first- 
fruit  of  the  impetus  given  to  its  worship  by  the  condemnation 
of  the  worship  of  all  other  symbols.  The  two  festivals  of  the 
cross,  the  invention  on  3  May  and  the  exaltation  on  14  Septem- 
ber, were  both  observed  in  the  old  English  church. 

Cynewulf's  poem  on  Helena's  search  for  the  true  cross  is 
contained  in  fourteen  cantos  or  "fitts."  It  is  written  in  a 
simple,  dramatic  style,  interspersed  with  imaginative  and  de- 
scriptive passages  of  great  beauty.  The  glamour  and  pomp  of 
war,  the  gleam  of  jewels,  the  joy  of  ships  dancing  on  the  waves, 
give  life  and  colour  to  a  narrative  permeated  by  the  deep  and 
serious  purpose  of  the  author.  The  fifteenth  fitt,  superfluous 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  story,  is  valuable  as  documentary 
evidence  bearing  on  the  poet's  personality.  It  contains  not 
only  his  signature  in  runes,  but  is  a  "fragment  of  a  great  con- 


62  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

fession,"  unveiling  to  us  the  manner  of  the  man  to  whom  the 
cross  became  salvation. 

"I  am  old,"  he  says,  "and  ready  to  depart,  having  woven  word - 
craft  and  pondered  deeply  in  the  darkness  of  the  world.  Once  I 
was  gay  in  the  hall  and  received  gifts,  appled  gold  and  treasures. 
Yet  was  I  buffeted  with  care,  fettered  by  sins,  beset  with  sorrows, 
until  the  Lord  of  all  might  and  power  bestowed  on  me  grace  and 
revealed  to  me  the  mystery  of  the  holy  cross.  Now  know  I  that  the 
joys  of  life  are  fleeting,  and  that  the  Judge  of  all  the  world  is  at 
hand  to  deal  to  every  man  his  doom." 

Two  useful  deductions  may  be  made  from  this  passage.  In 
the  first  place,  the  poet  was  evidently  advanced  in  age  when  he 
composed  this  poem,  a  point  already  alluded  to;  in  the  second, 
he  ascribes  his  conversion  to  a  true  understanding  of  the  cross. 
In  other  poems,  notably  Crist,  Cynewulf  reveals  an  almost 
equal  veneration  for  the  symbol  of  man's  redemption. 

But  the  poem  which,  above  all  others,  betrays  the  spirit  of 
tender  yet  passionate  veneration,  of  awe  and  adoration  for  "  the 
wondrous  cross  on  which  the  Prince  of  glory  died,"  is  The 
Dream  of  the  Rood.  It  is  transmitted  to  us  in  a  West  vSaxon 
form  in  the  VercelU  Book,  and  portions  of  it  are  to  be  found 
carved  in  runes  on  the  Ruth  well  cross  in  Dumfriesshire.^  The 
poem  is  now  claimed  as  C3mewulf's  by  probably  the  majority 
of  English  scholars,  though  it  is  possible  that  he  worked  on  older 
material.  At  the  same  time,  we  have  none  but  aesthetic  evi- 
dence to  go  upon.  A  resemblance  has  been  fancied  or  detected 
between  the  reference  to  the  cross  in  the  concluding  portion  of 
Elene  discussed  above  and  the  subject  and  treatment  of  this 

iln  addition  there  is  cut  upon  the  cross  an  inscription  which  was  inter- 
preted to  mean  "Caedmon  made  me,"  and,  upon  this  supposed  signature, 
was  based  the  attribution  of  The  Dream  of  the  Rood  to  Caedmon.  The  inscrip- 
tion, if  decipherable  at  all,  may  have  been  the  sculptor's  autograph.  In  no 
case  could  it,  apparently,  be  a  reference  to  the  poet  Caedmon,  for  the  language 
of  the  poem  on  the  Ruthwell  cross  is  younger  than  that  of  the  MS.  poem, 
possibly  of  the  tenth  century.  The  decoration  of  the  cross,  also,  is  thought 
to  be  too  elaborate  and  ornate  for  eighth  century  work  and  can  hardly  be 
dated  much  earlier  than  the  tenth  century.  See  Chapter  it  ante  and  the 
bibliography  to  that  chapter,  especially  the  writings  of  Victor  and  A.  S. 
Cook,  The  Dream  of  the  Rood. 

A  somewhat  similar,  though  very  short,  example  of  an  inscription  in  the 
first  person  is  preserved  on  a  cross  at  Brussels : — 

Rod  is  min  nama  :  3eo  ic  ricne  cyninj 
baer  byfijende,  blode  bestemed. 


"The  Dream  of  the  Rood"  63 

poem.  It  would  be  possible  to  overrate  the  value  of  this  coin- 
cidence. References  to  the  cross  are  frequent  in  both  prose 
and  verse.  They  need  prove  nothing  beyond  the  undoubtedly 
early  custom  of  the  adoration.  At  the  same  time,  the  two  poems 
have  much  in  common :  the  character  of  the  intimate  self-revela-^ 
tion  contained  in  each,  the  elegiac  tone  of  the  reflections  on  the 
transitoriness  of  the  world  and  the  sinfulness  of  man,  the 
phraseology  and  syntactical  structure  are  alike  to  a  degree 
which  makes  the  Cynewulfian  authorship  of  both  more  than 
probable.  The  Dream  of  the  Rood  is  the  choicest  blossom  of 
Old  English  Christian  poetry ;  religious  feeling  has  never  been 
more  exquisitely  clothed  than  in  these  one  hundred  and  forty 
lines  of  alliterative  verse.  It  is  full  of  imaginative  power  and 
enters  deeply  into  the  mysteries  of  sin  and  of  sorrow.  We 
have  no  other  instance  of  a  dream-poem  in  pre-Conquest  Eng- 
land, though  Bede  relates  several  visions.  The  poet  dreamt  a 
dream  and  in  it  saw  the  holy  rood  decked  with  gems  and  shin- 
ing gloriously.  Angels  guarded  it,  and,  at  its  sight,  the  singer 
was  af eared,  for  he  was  stained  with  guilt.  As  he  watched,  the 
tree  changed  colour;  anon  it  was  adorned  with  treasure,  anon 
stained  with  gore;  and,  as  he  watched,  it  spoke,  and  told  the 
story  of  the  crucifixion,  the  descent  from  the  cross,  the  resur- 
rection. ~  This  conception  of  the  cross  as  being  gifted  with 
power  of  speech  lends  a  charm  to  the  poem.  The  address  is 
followed  by  the  poet's  reflection  on  what  he  has  seen :  the  cross 
shall  be  henceforth  his  confidence  and  help.  The  concluding 
ten  lines  of  the  poem  seem  superfluous  and  are  possibly  a  later 
accretion.  The  theme  concludes  with  line  146.  The  charac- 
teristic opening  of  the  poem  may  be  noted.  As  in  Beowulf, 
Andreas,  Exodus  and  other  poems  the  singer  arrests  the  at- 
tention of  his  hearers  by  the  exclamation:  "Hwaet!"  =  Lo, 
comparable  to  the  "Listneth,  lordings"  of  the  later  minstrels. 
The  device  must  have  been  a  common  one  in  days  when  the 
harp  was  struck  at  festive  gatherings  and  the  scop  urged  his 
claim  to  a  hearing  by  a  preliminary  chord. 

We  must  pass  on  to  other  poems  that  have,  with  more  or 
less  show  of  reason,  been  attributed  to  Cynewulf .  Of  these,  the 
longest  is  the  life  of  the  Mercian  saint  Guthlac.  It  falls  into  two 
parts,  the  first,  apparently,  haxdng  been  composed^  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  anchorite  who  is  the  subject  of  the  poem,  the 


> 


64  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

second  being  based  upon  the  Latin  Vita  by  Felix  of  Croyland. 
The  main  question  that  has  been  discussed  has  been  whether 
both  parts  are  by  one  and  the  same  author  ot  not,  and  whether 
Cynewulf  can  lay  claim  to  one  or  both  parts.  If  only  one  part 
can  be  attributed  to  him  it  should  be  part  ii  (Guthlac  B) .  Since 
the  conclusion  to  this  part  is  missing,  it  may,  conceivably,  have 
contained  Cynewulf 's  signature  in  runes.  There  is  no  gap  in 
the  MS.  between  the  conclusion  of  Crist  and  the  beginning  of 
Guthlac,  and  Gollancz  has  assumed  that  the  passage  commonly 
read  as  the  conclusion  of  Crist  (11.  1 666-1 694)  really  forms  the 
introduction  to  Guthlac.  These  lines  are,  no  doubt,  superflu- 
ous as  regards  Crist,  but  they  are  yet  more  unsuitable  considered 
as  an  introduction  to  Guthlac,  which  begins,  quite  appropriately, 
with  a  common  epic  formula  "Monze  sindon"  (cf.  the  opening 
of  The  Phoenix) .  It  would  be  better  to  assume  them  to  be  a 
fragment  of  some  independent  poem  on  the  joys  of  the  blessed. 

The  death  of  Guthlac  is  related  in  lines  full  of  strength  and 
beauty.  The  writer  has  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  last  great 
struggle  with  the  powers  of  darkness  and  death,  even  as  Bunyan 
did  when  he  related  the  passage  of  Christian  through  the  Valley 
of  the  Shadow  of  Death.  The  wondrous  light  that  shines  over 
Guthlac' s  hut  before  he  dies  irresistibly  recalls  the  waving 
lights  in  the  sky  familiar  to  every  northerner,  and  when  we 
read  that,  at  the  saint's  entry  into  the  heavenly  mansions,  the 
whole  land  of  England  trembled  with  rapture,  we  feel  that, 
whether  Cynewulf  wrote  the  poem  or  not,  we  are  in  the  presence 
of  a  poet  who  does  not  lack  imaginative  power  of  a  high  order. 

The  Phoenix  has  been  attributed  to  Cynewulf  by  a  large 
number  of  competent  critics.  The  first  portion  of  it  is  based 
upon  a  Latin  poem  attributed  to  Lactantius,  and  there  is  some 
ground  for  assuming  Cynewulf's  acquaintance  with  that  Latin 
author,  since  a  copy  of  the  book  was  contained  in  Alcuin's  li- 
brary at  York,  and  Cynewulf  may  very  well  have  been  a  scholar 
in  the  school  at  York.^  The  second  part  of  the  poem,  the  alle- 
gorical application  of  the  myth  to  Christ,  is  based  on  the  writings 
of  Ambrose  and  Bede.  The  characteristic  feature  of  the  poem 
is  its  love  of  colour  and  wealth  of  gorgeous  descriptive  epithets. 
Especially  noteworthy,  in  this  respect,  is  the  description  of  the 
land  where  the  phoenix  dwells : 

1  Cook,  Christ,  p.  Ixiv. 


"The  Phoenix"  65 

Winsome  is  the  wold  there ;  there  the  wealds  are  green, 

Spacious  spread  below  the  skies ;  there  may  neither  snow  nor  rain, 

Nor  the  furious  air  of  frost,  nor  the  flare  of  fire, 

Nor  the  headlong  squall  of  hail,  nor  the  hoar-frost's  fall, 

Nor  the  burning  of  the  sun,  nor  the  bitter  cold, 

Nor  the  weather  over-warm,  nor  the  winter  shower, 

Do  their  wrong  to  any  wight — but  the  wold  abides 

Ever  happy,  healthful  there.' 

This  passage  illustrates  not  only  the  feeling  of  English  poets 
towards  nature,  but  also  the  development  that  took  place  in 
consequence  of  the  influence  of  Latin  letters.  The  Northum- 
brian poets  were  not  unskilled  in  the  depiction  of  scenes  with 
which  they  were  familiar;  but  in  The  Phoenix  we  have,  for  the 
first  time,  a  poet  attempting,  under  literary  influence,  and  with 
an  obviously  conscious  striving  after  artistic  effect,  to  paint  an 
ideal  landscape,  the  beauty  and  gentleness  of  summer  climes, 
the  wealth  of  tropical  nature,  the  balminess  of  a  softer  air, 
where  there  shall  be  no  more,  or  only  a  sun-lit-sea,  unlike  the 
sullen  gloom  of  the  northern  waters. 

The  conclusion  of  the  poem  is  of  an  unusual  kind.     It  con- 
sists of  eleven  lines  in  a  mixture  of  English  and  Latin,  the  first     -^^ 
half  of  each  line  being  English,  the  second  half  Latin,  the  Latin 
alliterating  with  the  English. 

Portions  of  an  Old  English  Physiologiis  have  also  been  at- 
tributed to  Cynewulf.  Allegorical  bestiaries  were  a  favourite 
form  of  literature  from  the  fifth  century  down  to  the  Middle  ^ 
Ages.  They  consisted  of  descriptions  of  certain  beasts,  birds 
and  fishes  which  were  considered  capable  of  an  allegorical  sig- 
nificance. The  allegorical  meaning  was  always  attached  to  the 
description,  much  as  a  moral  is  appended  to  a  fable.  The 
development  of  this  form  of  literature  was  due  to  the  fondness 
for  animal  symbolism  characteristic  of  early  Christian  art. 
Only  three  specimens  of  such  descriptions  are  extant  in  Old 
English  literature.  They  deal  with  the  panther,  the  whale  and 
the  partridge.  The  panther  is  complete,  there  is  a  gap  in  the 
description  of  the  whale,  of  the  partridge  there  is  hardly  suffi- 
cient to  prove  that  the  bird  described  was  really  a  partridge.  It 
is  uncertain  whether  these  pieces  were  merely  isolated  attempts 
at  imitation  of  a  foreign  model  or  whether  they  formed  part  of  a 

*  Stop  ford  Brooke's  version. 


66  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

complete  Old  English  Physiologus.  Two  somewhat  divergent 
texts  of  a  Latin  Physiologiis  (B  and  C) ,  belonging  to  the  ninth 
century,  have  been  discovered.  The  resemblance  between  the 
Latin  text  and  the  Old  English  is  fairly  striking  in  B  where, 
after  twenty- two  other  animals  have  been  described,  we  have 
the  panther,  the  whale  and  the  partridge;  probably  both  Old 
English  and  Latin  versions  are  derived  from  a  common  source. 
The  panther,  as  usual,  is  symbolical  of  Christ,  and  the  whale, 
which  lures  seafarers  to  moor  their  "  ocean-mares"  to  it,  think- 
ing its  back  an  island,  represents  the  "  accuser  of  the  brethren" 
and  its  gaping  mouth  is  the  gate  of  Hell. 

The  assumption  that  the  first  of  a  series  of  Old  English 
Riddles,  95  in  all,  was  a  charade  meaning  Cynewulf ,  or  Coenwulf , 
caused  the  collection  to  be  attributed  to  him.  These  riddles  are 
transmitted  in  the  Exeter  Book.  They  are  closely  connected 
with  similar  collections  of  Latin  riddles,  more  especially  one  by 
Aldhelm.  Aldhelm's  work  is  based  upon  that  of  the  fifth 
century  Latin  poet  Symphosius,  and  Aldhelm  was  the  first 
English  writer  to  acclimatise  the  Latin  riddle  in  England. 
Forty  riddles  by  Archbishop  Tatwine,  which  were  expanded  by 
Eusebius  to  the  number  of  100,  are  also  extant.  The  author  of 
the  Old  English  riddles  derived  most  of  his  inspiration  from 
Aldhelm,  but  he  also  seems  to  have  gone  direct  to  Symphosius 
and  to  have  made  some  slight  use  of  the  work  of  Eusebius  and 
Tatwine. 

The  theory  that  the  solution  of  the  first  riddle  was  the  name 
Coenwulf,  i.e.  Cynewulf,  was  refuted  by  Trautmann,  in  1883, 
and,  later,  by  Sievers,  on  linguistic  and  other  grounds. 

The  peculiarly  English  tone  and  character  of  the  riddles  is, 
in  some  measure,  due  to  Aldhelm's  example.  For,  though  he 
wrote  in  Latin,  his  style  differentiates  his  work  from  that  of  the 
Latin  authors,  and  accounts  for  the  popularity  this  form  of 
literature  acquired  in  England.  Furthermore,  the  author  or 
authors  of  the  Old  English  riddles  borrow  themes  from  native 
folk-song  and  saga;  in  their  hands  inanimate  objects  become 
endowed  with  life  and  personality ;  the  powers  of  nature  become 
objects  of  worship  such  as  they  were  in  olden  times;  they 
describe  the  scenery  of  their  own  country,  the  fen,  the  river, 
and  the  sea,  the  horror  of  the  untrodden  forest,  sun  and  moon 
engaged  in  perpetual  pursuit  of  each  other,  the  nightingale  and 


"The  Riddles"  67 

the  swan,  the  plough  guided  by  the  "grey-haired  enemy  of  the 
wood,"  the  bull  breaking  up  the  clods  left  unturned  by  the 
plough,  the  falcon,  the  arm-companion  of  aethelings — scenes, 
events,  characters  familiar  in  the  England  of  that  day.  Riddle 
XLi,  De  Creatura,  and  Riddle  ix,  on  the  Nightingale,  which  are 
subjects  taken  from  Aldhelm,  may  be  compared  wdth  the  Latin 
versions  to  prove  how  far  the  more  imaginative  English  poet 
w^as  from  being  a  mere  imitator,  and  the  storm  and  iceberg 
riddles  breathe  the  old  northern  and  viking  spirit.  Riddle  xxxvi 
is  also  preserved  in  Northumbrian  in  a  MS.  at  Leyden. 

The  most  varied  solutions  have,  from  time  to  time,  been 
suggested  for  some  of  the  riddles,  and  the  meaning  of  many  is 
by  no  means  clear.  The  most  recent  attempt  at  a  solution  of 
the  first  riddle  has  been  made  by  Scofield  and  Gollancz.  They 
see  in  this  short  poem  an  Old  English  monodrama  in  five  acts, 
wherein  a  lady  boasts  of  fidelity  to  her  lover,  but,  during  his 
absence,  proves  faithless  and  lives  to  endure  the  vengeance  of 
her  husband  in  the  loss  of  her  child. 

We  may  note,  in  conclusion,  a  group  of  minor  poems  which 
have  one  characteristic  feature  in  common,  namely,  the  note  of 
personal  religion ;  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  lyric  or  didactic 
in  character,  dealing  with  the  soul's  need  of  redemption.  Of 
these,  the  Death  Song  attributed  to  Bede  by  his  pupil  Cuthbert, 
who  gives  an  approximate  Latin  rendering  of  it,^  is  preserved 
in  a  Northumbrian  version  in  a  MS.  at  St.  Gall  and  belongs  to 
the  same  period  as  Caedmon's  Hymn. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  group  is  the  Address  of 
the  Lost  Soul  to  the  Body,  a  frequent  theme  in  later  literature. 
It  is  one  of  the  very  few  'Old  English  poems  preserved  in  two 
versions,  one  in  the  Exeter,  the  other  in  the  Vercelli  Book.  In 
the  latter  codex  is  contained  a  fragment  of  a  very  rare  theme, 
the  Addressofjlte  Saved  Said  to  the  Body.  A  poem  on  the  day 
of  doom  is  transmitted  in  the  Exeter  Book.  It  is  a  general  ad- 
monition  to  lead  a  godly,  righteous  and  sober  life,  after  the  fash- 
ion of  many  similar  warnings  in  later  literature. 

A  group  of  four  short  poems,  of  which  three  are  presented 
in  the  Exeter  Book,  deal  with  attributes  common  to  mankind : 
The  Gifts  of  Men  (Bi  monna  craeftum) — based,  largely,  upon 
the   29th  homily   of    Pope   Gregory,  and,   hence,    sometimes 

'  Epistola  Cudberti  ad  Cudwinum. 


> 


68  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

attributed  to  Cynewulf ;  the  Fates  of  Men  (Bi  manna  wyrdum) , 
which,  though  aUied  in  theme  to  the  previous  poem,  differs 
very  considerably  from  it  in  treatment;  the  Mind  of  Man  (Bi 
manna  mode)  and  the  Falsehood  of  Man  (Bi  manna  lease), 
which  may  be  described  as  poetical  homilies. 

The  Riming  Poem  is  a  solitary  instance  of  the  occurrence  in 
English  poetry  of  the  consistent  use  of  end-rime  and  alliteration 
in  one  and  the  same  poem.  The  theme  "  sorrow's  crown  of 
sorrows  is  remembering  happier  things ' '  recalls  the  epilogue  to 
Elene,  but  the  resemblance  is  not  sufficiently  striking  to  justify 
the  attribution  of  the  poem  to  Cynewulf.  The  metrical  form  is 
an  accurate  imitation  of  the  Hoefudlausn  of  Egill  Skallagrims- 
son,  which  was  composed  in  Northumberland  at  the  court  of 
Aethelstan. 

It  is  generally  thought  that  gnomic  or  didactic  poetry, 
which  seems  to  have  been  very  popular  during  the  Old  English 
period,  had  its  origin  in  the  religious  exercises  of  heathen  times. 
Certainly  it  is  well  represented  in  the  mythological  poems  of  the 
Edda,  whether  we  take  the  proverb  form,  as  in  the  first  part  of 
Hdvamdl,  or  the  form  of  question  and  answer,  as  in  Vaf]>ru^n- 
ismdl  and  other  poems.  Old  English  proverbs  are,  however, 
almost  entirely  deprived  of  heathen  colouring.  One  collection, 
amounting  altogether  to  206  lines  in  three  sections,  is  preserved 
in  the  Exeter  Book,  and  another,  containing  66  lines,  serves  as  a 
preface  to  one  of  the  texts  of  the  Chronicle.  The  proverbs  in 
the  two  collections  are  of  much  the  same  kind,  giving,  in  each 
case,  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  thing  mentioned,  e.g.  "frost 
shall  freeze,"  or  "a  king  shall  have  government."  Generally, 
however,  they  run  into  two  or  more  lines,  beginning  and  ending 
in  the  middle,  so  that  the  whole  collection  has  the  form  of  a 
connected  poem.  In  this  class  of  literature  we  may,  perhaps, 
also  include  A  Father's  Instruction,  a  poem  consisting  of  ten 
moral  admonitions  (94  lines  in  all)  addressed  by  a  father  to  his 
son  somewhat  after  the  nature  of  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon .  In 
form,  it  may  be  compared  with  Sigrdrifumdl  and  the  last  part 
of  Hdvamdl,  but  the  matter  is  very  largely  Christian.  Men- 
tion must  also  be  made  of  The  Runic  Poem,  which,  likewise, 
has  Scandinavian  parallels.  Each  of  the  letters  of  the  runic 
alphabet  had  its  own  name,  which  was  also  the  word  for  some 
animal,  plant  or  other  article,  e.g.  riches,  buffalo,  thorn;  and  it 


Caedmon  and  Cynewulf  69 

is  the  properties  of  these  which  the  poem  describes,  allotting 
three  or  four  lines  to  each.  The  other  form  of  didactic  poetry, 
the  dialogue,  is  represented  in  Old  English  in  the  poem  known 
as  Salomon  and  Saturn.  This  alliterative  poem  is  preserved 
in  two  MSS.  in  the  Library  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cam- 
bridge. King  Solomon,  as  the  representative  of  Jewish  wisdom, 
is  represented  as  measuring  forces  with  Saturn,  a  docile  learner 
and  mild  disputant.  The  Old  English  dialogue  has  its  counter- 
part in  more  than  one  literature,  but,  in  other  countries, 
Marcolf,  who  takes  the  place  of  Saturn,  gets  the  best  of  the 
game,  and  saucy  wit  confounds  the  teacher. 

Any  attempt  to  estimate  the  development  attained  by  Old 
English  literature,  as  shown  by  the  work  of  the  two  schools  of 
poetry  which  the  names  of  Caedmon  and  Cynewulf  connote, 
must,  of  necessity,  be  somewhat  superficial,  in  view  of  the  frag- 
mentary nature  of  much  of  the  work  passed  under  review. 
Caedmon  stands  for  a  group  of  singers  whose  work  we  feel  to 
be  earlier  in  tone  and  feeling,  though  not  always  in  age,  than 
that  which  we  know  to  be  Cynewulf  s  or  can  fairly  attribute  to 
him.  Both  schools  of  thought  are  Christian,  not  rarely  even 
monkish;  both  writers,  if  not  in  equal  measure,  are  sons  of  their 
age  and  palpably  inheritors  of  a  philosophy  of  life  pagan  in  many 
respects.  It  is  safe  to  say  that,  in  both  groups,  there  is  hardly 
a  single  poem  of  any  length  and  importance  in  which  whole 
passages  are  not  permeated  with  the  spirit  of  the  untouched 
Beowulf,  in  which  turns  of  speech,  ideas,  points  of  view,  do  not 
recall  an  earlier,  a  fiercer,  a  more  self-reliant  and  fatalistic  age. 
God  the  All-Ruler  is  fate  metamorphosed ;  the  powers  of  evil 
are  identical  with  those  once  called  giants  and  elves ;  the  Para- 
dise and  Hell  of  the  Christian  are  as  realistic  as  the  Walhalla 
and  the  Niflheim  of  the  heathen  ancestor. 

Yet  the  w^ork  of  Cynewulf  and  his  school  marks  an  advance 
upon  the  writings  of  the  school  of  Caedmon.  Even  the  latter 
is,  at  times,  subjective  and  personal  in  tone  to  a  degree  not 
found  in  pure  folk-epic;  but  in  Cynewulf  the  personal  note  is 
emphasised  and  becomes  lyrical.  Caedmon' s  hymn  in  praise  of 
the  Creator  is  a  sublime  statement  of  generally  recognised  facts 
calling  for  universal  acknowledgment'  in  suitably  exalted  terms ; 
Cynewulf  s  confessions  in  the  concluding  portion  of  Elene  or  in 
The  Dream  of  the  Rood,  or  his  vision  of  the  day  of  judgment  in 


70  Old  English  Christian  Poetry 

Crist,  are  lyrical  outbursts,  spontaneous  utterances  of  a  soul 
which  has  become  one  with  its  subject  and  to  which  self-revela- 
tion is  a  necessity.  This  advance  shows  itself  frequently,  also, 
in  the  descriptions  of  nature.  For  Cynewulf ,  "  earth's  crammed 
with  heaven,  and  every  common  bush  afire  with  God";  it  is, 
perhaps,  only  in  portions  of  Exodus  and  in  passages  of  Genesis 
B  that  the  Divine  immanence  in  nature  is  obviously  felt  by  the 
Caedmonian  scop. 

The  greatest  distinction  between  the  one  school  and  the 
other,  is  due,  however,  to  the  degree  in  which  Cynewulf  and  his 
group  show  their  power  of  assimilating  foreign  literary  influ- 
ences. England  was  ceasing  to  be  insular  as  the  influence  of  a 
literary  tongue  began  to  hold  sway  over  her  writers.  They  are 
scholars  deliberately  aiming  at  learning  from  others — they 
borrow  freely,  adapt,  reproduce.  Form  has  become  of  impor- 
tance; at  times,  of  supreme  importance;  the  attempt,  architect- 
urally imperfect  as  it  may  be,  to  construct  the  trilogy  we 
know  as  Crist  is  valuable  as  a  proof  of  consciousness  in  art,  and 
the  transformation  that  the  riddles  show  in  the  passage  from 
their  Latin  sources  furnishes  additional  evidence  of  the  desire 
to  adorn. 

Yet,  it  is  hard  not  to  regret  much  that  was  lost  in  the 
acquisition  of  the  new.  The  reflection  of  the  spirit  of  paganism, 
the  development  of  epic  and  lyric  as  we  see  them  in  the  frag- 
ments that  remain,  begin  to  fade  and  change;  at  first  Christian- 
ity is  seen  to  be  but  thin  veneer  over  the  old  heathen  virtues, 
and  the  gradual  assimilation  of  the  Christian  spirit  was  not 
accomplished  without  harm  to  the  national  poetry,  or  without 
resentment  on  the  part  of  the  people.  "  They  have  taken  away 
our  ancient  worship,  and  no  one  knows  how  this  new  worship  is 
to  be  performed,"  said  the  hostile  common  folk  to  the  monks, 
when  the  latter  were  praying  atTynemouth  for  the  safety  of  their 
brethren  carried  out  to  sea.  "  We  are  not  going  to  pray  for  them. 
May  God  spare  none  of  them,"  they  jibed,  when  they  saw  that 
Cuthbert's  prayers  appeared  to  be  ineffectual.  It  was  many  a 
year  before  the  hostility  to  the  new  faith  was  overcome  and  the 
foreign  elements  blended  with  the  native  Teutonic  spirit.  The 
process  of  blending  can  be  seen  perfectly  at  work  in  such  lines  as 
The  Charm  for  Barren  Land,  where  pagan  feeling  and  nominal 
Christianity  are  inextricably  mixed.     There,  earth  spells  are 


Caedmon  and  Cynewulf  7^ 

mingled  with  addresses  to  the  Mother  of  Heaven.  But,  in  due 
season,  the  fusion  was  accompUshed,  and,  in  part,  this  was  due 
to  the  wisdom  with  which  the  apostles  of  Christianity  retained 
and  disguised  in  Christian  dress  many  of  the  festivals,  obser- 
vances and  customs  of  pre-Christian  days.  That  so  much 
of  what  remains  of  Old  English  literature  is  of  a  religious  nature 
does  not  seem  strange,  when  it  is  remembered  through  whose 
hands  it  has  come  down  to  us.  Only  what  appealed  to  the  new 
creed  or  could  be  modified  by  it  would  be  retained  or  adapted, 
when  the  Teutonic  spirit  became  linked  with,  and  tamed  by, 
that  of  Rome. 


I 


CHAPTER  V 

Latin  Writings  in  England  to  the  Time 

of  Alfred 

IT  is  outside  the  scope  of  this  work  to  survey  the  various 
scattered  documents  of  British  origin  which  were  pro- 
duced outside  Britain.  Moreover,  the  influence  of  most 
of  them  upon  the  main  stream  of  EngHsh  Hterature  was,  beyond 
all  doubt,  extremely  slight.  Among  the  writings  thus  excluded 
from  consideration  may  be  mentioned  the  remains  of  Pelagius, 
who  seems  to  have  been  actually  the  earliest  British  author, 
the  short  tract  of  Fastidius,  "  a  British  bishop,"  on  the  Christian 
life  and  the  two  wonderful  books  of  St.  Patrick — the  Confession 
and  the  Letter  to  Coroticus — which,  in  spite  of  their  barbaric 
style,  whereof  the  author  was  fully  conscious,  are  among  the 
most  living  and  attractive  monuments  of  ancient  Christianity. 
Outside  our  province  also  falls  the  earliest  piece  of  Latin  verse 
produced  in  these  islands,  the  Hymn  of  St.  Sechnall;  and  also  the 
hymns  of  the  Bangor  antiphonary,  the  writings  of  Columban 
and  the  lives  and  remains  of  the  Irish  missionaries  abroad.  All 
these  are  named  here  principally  lest  it  should  be  supposed  that 
they  have  been  forgotten. 

We  pass  to  our  earliest  indigenous  literary  products ;  and  the 
list  of  these  is  headed  by  two  somewhat  uncouth  fragments, 
marked  off  from  almost  all  that  follow  them  by  the  fact  that 
they  are  British  and  not  English  in  origin.  These  are  the  book 
of  Gildas  and  the  History  of  the  Britons. 

Concerning  the  career  of  Gildas  the  Wise,  we  are  told  much 
in  the  lives  of  him  by  a  monk  of  Rhuys,  and  by  Cadoc  of  Lan- 
carvan,  which  belong  respectively  to  the  early  part  of  the 
eleventh  century  and  to  the  twelfth;  but  almost  all  the  data 
that  can  be  regarded  as  trustworthy  are  derived  from  Gildas 's 

72 


Gildas  73 

own  book  and  from  brief  notices  in  Irish  and  Welsh  annals.  As 
examined  by  Zimmer  and  Theodor  Mommsen,  these  sources 
tell  us  that  Gildas,  born  about  the  year  500  a.d.,  was  living  in 
the  west  of  England  and  wrote  the  book  which  we  possess 
shortly  before  547;  that,  perhaps,  he  journeyed  to  Rome;  that 
he  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life  in  Britanny  and  probably  died 
there  in  570;  and  that  not  long  before  his  death  (probably 
also  in  his  younger  days)  he  visited  Ireland.  He  is  represented 
by  various  authorities  as  having  been  a  pupil  of  St.  Iltut  at 
Lantwit  Major  in  Wales,  together  with  other  great  saints  of  the 
time. 

The  book  of  his  which  remains  to  us  is  thus  entitled  by  its 
most  recent  editor,  Mommsen :  "  Of  Gildas  the  Wise  concerning 
the  destruction  and  conquest  of  Britain,  and  her  lamentable 
castigation  uttered  against  the  kings,  princes  and  priests 
thereof."  The  manuscripts  differ  widely  in  the  names  they 
assign  to  it. 

The  author  himself  in  his  opening  words  describes  his  work 
as  an  epistle.  For  ten  years  it  has  been  in  his  mind,  he  says, 
to  deliver  his  testimony  about  the  wickedness  and  corruption 
of  the  British  state  and  church;  but  he  has,  though  with  diffi- 
culty, kept  silence.  Now,  he  must  prove  himself  worthy  of  the 
charge  laid  upon  him  as  a  leading  teacher,  and  speak.  But 
first,  he  will,  with  God's  help,  set  forth  shortly  some  facts  about 
the  character  of  the  country  and  the  fortunes  of  its  people. 
Here  follows  that  sketch  of  the  history  of  Britain  which,  largely 
used  by  Bede  and  by  the  compilers  of  the  History  of  the  Britons, 
is  almost  our  only  literary  authority  for  tke  penoa.  In  com- 
piling  it,  Gildas  says  he  has  not  used  native  sources,  which,  if 
they  ever  existed,  had  perished,  but  "narratives  from  beyond 
the  sea."  What  this  precisely  means  it  is  not  easy  to  deter- 
mine. The  only  historical  authors  whose  influence  can  be 
directly  traced  in  his  text  are  Rufinus's  version  of  Eusebius, 
Jerome's  Chronicle  and  Orosius;  and  none  of  these  records  the 
local  occurrences  which  Gildas  relates.  ]\Ioreover,  the  story, 
as  he  tells  it,  clearly  appears  to  be  derived  from  oral  traditions 
(in  some  cases  demonstrably  incorrect)  rather  than  copied  from 
any  older  written  sources.  It  may  be  that  Gildas  drew  his 
knowledge  from  aged  British  monks  who  had  settled  in  Ireland 
or  Britanny :  it  may  be  that  b}^  the  relatio  transmarina  he  merely 


74  Latin  Writings  in  England 

means  the  foreign  historians  just  mentioned.  Brief  and  rather 
vague  as  it  is,  the  narrative  may  be  accepted  as  representing 
truly  enough  the  course  of  events. 

It  occupies  rather  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  whole  work, 
and  brings  us  down  to  the  time,  forty-four  years  after  the 
British  victory  of  Mount  Badon,  when  the  descendants  of  the 
hero  of  that  field,  Ambrosius  Aurelianus,  had  departed  from  the 
virtues  of  their  great  ancestor,  and  when,  in  the  view  of  our 
author,  the  moral  and  spiritual  state  of  the  whole  British 
dominion  had  sunk  to  the  lowest  level  of  degradation.  In  the 
pages  that  follow,  he  attacks,  successively  and  by  name,  five  of 
the  princes  of  the  west:  Constantine  of  Devon  and  Cornwall, 
Aurelius  Caninus,  whose  sphere  of  influence  is  unknown,  Vor- 
tipor  of  Pembrokeshire,  Cuneglasus,  king  of  an  unnamed  ter- 
ritory; and  the  "  dragon  of  the  isle,"  Maglocunus,  who  is  known 
to  have  reigned  over  Anglesey  and  to  have  died  in  the  year  547. 
Each  of  these  is  savagely  reproached  with  his  crimes — sacrilege, 
perjury,  adultery  and  murder — and  each  is,  in  milder  terms, 
entreated  to  return  to  the  ways  of  peace. 

Up  to  this  point  the  epistle  is  of  great  interest,  though  tanta- 
lising from  its  lack  of  precise  detail.  It  now  becomes  far  less 
readable.  The  whole  of  the  remainder  is,  practically,  a  cento 
of  biblical  quotations,  gathering  together  the  woes  pronounced 
in  Scripture  against  evil  princes  and  evil  priests,  and  the  exhor- 
tations found  therein  for  their  amendment.  The  picture 
which  the  author  draws  of  the  principate  and  of  the  clergy  is 
almost  without  relief  in  its  blackness.  He  does  just  allow  that 
there  are  a  few  good  priests;  but  corruption,  worldliness  and 
vice  are  rampant  among  the  majority. 

That  Gildas  was  convinced  of  the  urgency  of  his  message 
there  is  no  room  to  doubt.  Like  Elijah  at  Horeb,  he  feels  that 
he  is  left  alone,  a  prophet  of  the  Lord ;  and  every  word  he  writes 
comes  from  his  heart.  Yet,  if  we  are  certain  of  his  sincerity, 
we  are  at  least  equally  confident  that  his  picture  must  be  too 
darkly  coloured.  We  have  complained  that  he  lacks  precision: 
it  must  be  added  that  he  loves  adjectives,  and  adjectives  in  the 
superlative  degree.  Doubtless  Salonius  and  Sagittarius,  the 
wicked  bishops  of  Gap  and  Embrun,  of  whom  Gregory  of  Tours 
has  so  much  to  say,  had  their  counterparts  in  Britain ;  but  there 
w^ere  also  St.   Iltut,  St.  David  and  many  another,  renowned 


Gildas  75 

founders  of  schools  and  teachers  of  the  young,  whose  labours 
cannot  have  been  wholly  fruitless. 

In  style,  Gildas  is  vigorous  to  the  point  of  turgidity.  His 
breathless  periods  are  often  wearisome  and  his  epithets  multi- 
tudinous. Perhaps  the  most  pleasant  sample  of  his  writings 
is  the  paragraph  in  which  he  enumerates  with  an  ardent  and  real 
affection  the  beauties  of  Britain.  In  a  few  instances  he  shows 
that  tendency  to  adorn  his  page  with  rare  and  difficult  words 
which  seems  to  have  had  a  great  attraction  for  the  Celtic  mind. 

It  is  evident  that  he  considers  himself  a  Roman  citizen  in 
some  sense.  To  him,  Latin  is  "our  tongue,"  as  opposed  to 
English ;  and  the  impression  given  by  this  phrase  is  confirmed 
by  the  whole  tenor  of  his  writing.  His  sources  of  inspiration, 
as  we  have  in  part  seen,  are  Roman.  To  those  already  men- 
tioned we  may  add  the  names  of  Vergil  and,  perhaps,  Juvenal 
and  Claudian. 

In  summing  up  the  impression  which  he  leaves  upon  us,  we 
may  say  that  his  eyes  are  fixed  regretfully  upon  a  great  past; 
there  is  no  hint  of  hope  for  the  future.  The  thought  that  the 
heathen  English  might  become  a  source  of  light  to  the  western 
world  is  one  that  has  never  dawned  upon  him.  In  short,  Gildas 
is  a  dark  and  sad  figure.  Night  is  falling  round  him;  all  that 
he  has  been  taught  to  prize  is  gone  from  him  or  going;  and, 
when  he  looks  upon  his  land,  "behold  darkness  and  sorrow, 
and  the  light  is  darkened  in  the  heavens  thereof. ' ' 

The  literary  history  of  the  book  is  not  very  complicated. 
The  compilers  of  the  History  of  the  Britons  used  it,  and  so  did 
Bede,  and  the  authors  of  the  lives  of  Gildas  and  of  other  Breton 
saints.  In  the  twelfth  century  it  was  a  rare  book  in  England, 
as  William  of  Newburgh  tells  us:  but  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth 
had  it  before  him  in  the  first  half  of  that  century. 

We  have,  besides  the  epistle  par  excellence,  relics  of  other 
epistles  of  Gildas,  in  which  his  peculiar  style  is  very  recognis- 
able, and  also  some  penitential  canons.  Of  these  latter,  we 
need  only  say  that  the  precise  extent  of  the  material  in  them 
which  can  be  certainly  assigned  to  Gildas  is  still  in  dispute. 

Another  fragment  of  Gildan  literature,  upon  whose  authen- 
ticity a  curious  literary  question  depends,  is  the  hymn  called 
Lorica  or  Cuirass.  This  is  a  metrical  prayer,  in  which  the  sup- 
pliant asks  for  dixdne  protection  against  "the  mortality  of  this 


7^  Latin  Writings  in  England 

year"  and  against  evil  demons,  and  enumerates  each  limb  and 
organ  of  his  body.  The  form  which  the  prayer  takes,  though 
not  common,  is  not  unique.  A  similar  hymn  in  Irish  is  attri- 
buted to  St.  Patrick,  and  there  are  others  of  Irish  origin.  The 
attribution  of  this  particular  Lorica  to  Gildas  (Gillus,  the  name 
in  the  manuscript,  is  pretty  clearly  meant  for  Gildas)  is  not 
unanimous:  one  Lathacan,  Laidcenn,  or  Loding  (probably  an 
Irish  prince  of  the  seventh  century)  is  named  by  several  copies 
— once  as  having  brought  the  hymn  to  Ireland.  Zimmer  is 
confident  in  maintaining  that  Gildas  is  the  author:  Mommsen 
dissents  from  this  view. 

It  may  seem  an  indifferent  matter  whether  this  particular 
hymn  is  a  work  of  the  sixth  or  seventh  century ;  but  the  fact  is 
that  its  style  and  vocabulary  are  of  considerable  interest  as 
throwing  light  on  the  culture  of  its  time,  and  they  connect  it 
with  a  longer  document  or  group  of  documents,  the  date  and 
provenance  of  which  it  would  be  very  interesting  to  settle. 

In  its  latter  portion,  where  it  enumerates  the  various  parts 
of  the  body,  Lorica  is,  to  a  large  extent,  a  collection  of  the  most 
obscure  foreign  and  archaic  words  which  the  author  could  scrape 
together.  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin  are  mingled  in  the  most 
curious  way,  and  are  so  disguised  and  corrupted  that,  in  many 
cases,  we  are  only  able  to  divine  their  meaning  by  the  help  of 
glosses.     It  may  be  allowable  to  quote  a  single  line — 

gygram  cephalem  cum  iaris  et  conas — 

which  is  said  to  mean 

head,  head  with  hair  and  eyes. 

The  other  group  of  writings  in  which  a  similarly  extraordi- 
nary vocabulary  occurs  is  represented  principally  by  the  work 
called  Hisperica  Famina,  which  we  possess  in  more  than  one 
text.  It  is  arranged  in  a  series  of  sections,  numbering  in  all 
somewhat  over  600  lines,  of  a  kind  of  assonant  non-metrical 
structure.  Each  line  usually  consists  of  two  parts.  The  first 
part  contains  one  or  two  epithets,  and  the  verb  and  subject  are 
in  the  second  part.  Each  section  contains  a  description  of  some 
scene  or  object — the  day's  work,  the  sea,  fire,  the  wind,  a  chapel, 
an  encounter  with  robbers.  The  writer  is  evidently  a  member 
of  something  like  a  monastic  school;  and  all  that  we  can  cer- 
tainly say  of  his  surroundings  is  that  he  is  brought  into  contact 


"  Historia  Brittonum"  11 

with  Irish  people,  for  they  are  distinctly  mentioned  in  the 

text. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  any  idea  of  the  obscurity  of  Hisperica 
Famina  without  quoting  or  translating  passages ;  and  nothing 
short  of  the  genius  of  Sir  Thomas  Urquhart  could  find  equiva- 
lents for  the  amazing  words  used  by  the  writer.  This  one  point 
is  evident,  that  the  same  school  produced  Lorica  and  Hisperica 
Famina.  Was  that  school  located  in  England  or  Ireland?  If 
Gildas  be  author  of  Lorica,  it  follows,  in  all  probability,  that  the 
author  of  Hisperica  Famina  was  a  man  brought  up,  like  Gildas, 
in  a  south  Welsh  school  such  as  that  of  St.  Iltut,  and,  subse- 
quently, settled  in  Ireland,  where  he  wrote  Hisperica  Famina. 
In  this  case  we  must  place  him  in  the  sixth  century.  One  piece 
of  evidence  which  points  in  this  direction  can  hardly  be  set 
aside.  The  hymn  attributed  to  St.  Columba  and  known  as 
AlUis  prosator  contains  very  marked  specimens  of  the  Hisperic 
Latinity.  That  this  composition  is  really  of  Columba's  age  is 
the  belief  of  its  latest  editors;  and,  if  that  be  granted,  there  is 
no  need  to  seek  for  further  proof  that  Hisperica  Famina  could 
have  been  produced  in  the  sixth  century,  and  that,  whether 
Irish  in  origin  or  not,  its  peculiarities  w^ere  adopted  by  genu- 
inely Iri.sh  authors. 

The  Historia  Brittonum  has  been  the  centre  of  many  con- 
troversies as  to  its  date  and  origin.  As  set  forth  in  Theodor 
Mommsen's  edition,  it  consists  of  the  following  tracts,  which 
together  form  what  has  been  called  Volumen  Britanniae,  or 
the  Book  of  Britain:  i.  A  calculation  of  epochs  of  the  world's 
history,  brought  down  to  various  dates  by  various  scribes  or 
editors.  2.  The  history  of  the  Britons  down  to  a  time  immedi- 
ately after  the  death  of  Vortigern.  3 .  A  short  life  of  St.  Patrick. 
4.  A  chapter  about  Arthur. ^  5.  Genealogies  of  Saxon  kings 
and  a  calculation  of  epochs.  6.  A  hst  of  cities  of  Britain.  7. 
A  tract  on  the  wonders  of  Britain. 

As  to  the  probable  date  of  this  curious  congeries  of  writings, 
it  is  held  that  they  were  compiled  by  a  Briton  somewhere  about 
the  year  679,  after  which  additions  were  made  to  them.  In  par- 
ticular, about  the  year  800,  a  recension  of  the  whole  was  made 
by  one  Nennius.     He  represents  himself  as  a  pupil  of  Elbodugus 

1  See  the  chapter  on  the  early  history  of  the  Arthurian  legend  in  the  pres- 
ent vclume. 


78  Latin  Writings  in  England 

(who  is  known  to  have  been  bishop  of  Bangor,  and  to  have  died 

in  809)  and  also,  seemingly,  as  a  pupil  of  one  Beulan,  for  whose 

J,  son  Samuel  he  made  his  revision  of  the  book.     He  may,  very 

I  possibly,  be  identical  with  the  Nemnivus  of  whom  we  have 

some  curious  relics  preserved  in  a  Bodleian  manuscript. 

The  revision  of  Nennius  is  not  extant  in  a  complete  form. 
Our  best  authority  for  it  is  an  Irish  version  made  in  the  eleventh 
century  by  Gilla  Coemgin.  Some  of  the  Latin  copies  have  pre- 
ser\^ed  extracts  from  the  original,  among  which  are  the  preface 
of  Nennius  and  some  verses  by  him.  A  principal  point  to  be 
remembered  in  this  connection  is  that  it  is  scarcely  correct  to 
speak  of  the  History  of  the  Britons  as  being  the  work  of  Nennius.  ^ 

The  sources  employed  by  the  original  compiler  or  compilers 
of  the  various  tracts  which  make  up  the  "volume  of  Britain" 
are  both  native  and  foreign.  He  or  they  have  drawn  largely 
upon  Celtic  legend,  written  or  oral.  Other  writings  which  have 
been  used  to  a  considerable  extent  are  Gildas,  Jerome's  Chron- 
icle and  a  lost  life  of  St.  Germanus  of  Auxerre.  Slighter  traces 
of  a  knowledge  of  Vergil,  Caesar,  Isidore,  and  a  map  resembling 
the  Peutinger  Table,  are  forthcoming. 

Of  the  authors  to  whom  the  book  was  known  in  early  times 
it  is  only  necessary  to  name  two.  In  all  probability,  Bede  was 
acquainted  with  it,  though  he  does  not  mention  it  as  having 
been  one  of  his  sources  of  information.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth 
made  fairly  extensive  use  of  it.  The  copy  which  he  had  evi- 
dently attributed  the  authorship  to  Gildas,  as  do  three  at  least 
of  our  extant  manuscripts. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  speak  of  the  History  as  possessing  a 
distinctive  style.  Where  the  author  attempts  a  detailed  narra- 
tive, his  manner  reminds  us  of  the  historical  portions  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  books  of  Chronicles,  with  their  mixture 
of  genealogy  and  story,  afford  a  near  and  familiar  parallel. 

If  we  possessed  the  whole  of  the  revision  by  Nennius  in  its 
Latin  form,  we  should  most  likely  find  that  he  had  infused  into 
it  something  of  the  learned  manner  beloved  of  his  race  and  age. 
At  least,  his  preface  and  his  verses  indicate  this.  Greek  and 
Hebrew  words  occur  in  the  verses,  and  one  set  of  them  is  so 

'  The  view  here  expressed  is,  in  the  main,  that  of  Zimmer  and  Mommsen. 
It  must  be  mentioned  that  another  hypothesis  regards  Nennius  as  primarily 
responsible  for  the  whole  compilation.  If  this  be  accepted,  there  can  be  no> 
possibility  of  Bede's  having  used  the  book. 


"HistoriaBrittonum."  Theodore  and  Hadrian  79 

written  that  the  initials  of  the  words  form  an  alphabet.  The 
original  author  of  the  History  had  no  such  graces.  His  best 
passage  is  the  well-known  tale  of  Vortigern. 

Within  a  generation  after  the  death  of  Gildas  the  Roman 
mission  came  to  Kent,  and  the  learning  of  the  Latins,  secular 
as  well  as  sacred,  was  brought  within  reach  of  the  English. 
The  seventh  century  saw  them  making  copious  use  of  this 
enormous  gift,  and  Latin  literature  flourished  in  its  new  and 
fertile  soil. 

Probably  the  coming  of  archbishop  Theodore  and  abbot 
Hadrian  to  Canterbury  in  the  year  668  w^as  the  event  which 
contributed  more  than  any  other  to  the  progress  of  education 
in  England.  The  personalities  of  these  two  men,  both  versed 
in  Greek  as  well  as  in  Latin  learning,  determined,  at  least  at 
first,  the  quality  and  complexion  of  the  literary  output  of  the 
country.  But  theirs  was  not  the  only  strong  influence  at  work. 
In  the  first  place,  the  fashion  of  resorting  to  Ireland  for  instruc- 
tion was  very  prevalent  among  English  students ;  in  the  second 
place,  the  intercourse  between  England  and  Rome  was  inces- 
sant. Especially  was  this  the  case  in  the  monasteries  of  the 
north.  To  take  a  single  famous  instance :  five  times  did  Bene- 
dict Biscop,  abbot  of  Wearmouth,  journey  from  Britain  to 
Rome,  and,  on  each  occasion,  he  returned  laden  with  books  and 
artistic  treasures.  A  less  familiar  example  may  also  be  cited. 
Cuthwin,  bishop  of  the  east  Angles  about  750,  brought  with 
him  from  Rome  a  life  of  St.  Paul  full  of  pictures ;  and  an  illus- 
trated copy  of  Sedulius,  now  at  Antwerp  (in  the  Plantin  Mus- 
eum) ,  has  been  shown  to  have  belonged  to  the  same  owner. 

Four  books  which  have  been  preser\'^ed  to  our  times  may  be 
cited  as  tangible  monuments  of  the  various  influences  which 
were  being  exercised  upon  the  English  in  the  seventh  century. 
The  "Gregorian  Gospels"  at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cam- 
bridge (MS.  286),  written  in  the  seventh  century  and  illustrated 
with  pictures  which,  if  not  painted  in  Italy,  go  back  to  Italian 
originals,  represent  the  influence  of  Augustine.  The  Graeco- 
Latin  copy  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  at  Oxford  (Laud.  Gr.  35) 
may  well  have  been  brought  to  this  country  by  Theodore  or 
Hadrian.  The  Lindisfarne  Gospels  show  the  blend  of  Celtic 
with  Anglian  art,  and  contain  indications  of  a  Neapolitan 
archetype.     The  Codex  Amiatinus  of  the  Latin  Bible,  now  at 


So  Latin  Writings  in  England 

Florence,  written  at  Wearmouth  or  Jarrow  and  destined  as  a 
present  for  the  Pope,  shows  England  acknowledging  her  debt 
to  Rome. 

The  first  considerable  literary  figure  among  English  writers 
of  Latin  is  undoubtedly  Aldhelm,  who  died  bishop  of  Sherborne 
in  709.  Much  of  his  life  was  passed  at  Malmesbury,  and  the 
account  given  by  William  of  Malmesbury,  on  the  authority  of 
king  Alfred's  Handbook,  of  Aldhelm's  skill  as  a  poet  in  the  ver- 
nacular, and  of  his  singing  to  the  harp  songs  of  his  own  com- 
posing by  which  he  hoped  to  teach  the  country  people,  is 
probably  the  only  fact  associated  with  his  name  in  the  minds  of 
most.  Glad  as  we  should  be  to  possess  these  English  poems, 
it  is  certain  that  Aldhelm  and  his  contemporaries  must  have 
thought  little  of  them  in  comparison  with  his  Latin  works. 
There  may  have  been  many  in  the  land  who  could  compose  in 
English ;  but  there  were  assuredly  very  few  w^ho  were  capable 
of  producing  writings  such  as  those  on  which  Aldhelm's  repu- 
tation rests. 

For  our  purpose  one  fact  derived  from  a  letter  of  Aldhelm 
himself  is  of  extreme  importance.  In  his  youth  he  was  for  a 
considerable  time  a  pupil  of  Hadrian  of  Canterbury. 

A  late  biographer,  Faricius,  credits  Aldhelm  with  a  know- 
ledge of  Greek  (derived  from  two  teachers  procured  by  king  Ine 
from  Athens),  of  Hebrew  and  of  Latin,  which  tongue  no  one 
had  employed  to  greater  advantage  since  Vergil.  These  state- 
ments cannot  be  taken  quite  as  they  stand.  We  do  not  hear 
from  any  other  source  of  the  Athenian  teachers,  and  the  Greek 
which  Aldhelm  undoubtedly  knew  he  could  perfectly  well  have 
learned  from  Hadrian.  There  is,  practically,  nothing  to  show 
that  he  knew  Hebrew,  and  we  need  not  spend  time  in  exam- 
ining the  remark  about  Vergil.  In  spite  of  this  and  similar 
exaggerations,  the  fact  remains  that  Aldhelm's  learning  is  really 
very  great  for  his  time. 

The  writings  of  his  which  we  possess  are  the  following : 

I.  A  number  of  letters.  2.  A  prose  treatise  on  the  praise 
of  virginity.  3.  A  versification,  in  hexameters,  of  the  same 
treatise.  4.  A  prose  book  on  the  number  seven  and  on  meters, 
especially  the  hexameter,  containing  also  a  collection  of  one 
hundred  riddles  in  verse.  5.  Occasional  poems,  principally 
inscriptions  for  altars  or  the  like. 


Aldhelm  8i 

Of  the  letters  (several  of  which  have  been  preserved 
among  the  correspondence  of  St.  Boniface)  two  are  of  particular 
interest.  The  first  of  these,  addressed  to  the  Welsh  king  Ge- 
raint,  complains  of  the  irregularities  of  the  British  clergy  in 
regard  to  the  form  of  the  tonsure  and  the  observance  of  Easter, 
and  of  their  unchristian  attitude  towards  the  English  clergy, 
with  whom  they  refuse  to  hold  any  intercourse.  It  warns  the 
king  of  the  dangers  incurred  by  those  who  are  out  of  commun- 
ion with  the  church  of  Peter,  and  begs  him  to  use  his  influence  in 
favour  of  union.  The  style  and  vocabulary  of  this  letter  are 
unusually  plain  and  straightforward.  Few  words  appear  to  be 
inserted  simply  for  the  sake  of  adorning  the  page.  It  is  a  sin- 
cere and  business-like  document. 

The  other  offers  a  wide  contrast.  It  is  written  to  one 
Eahfrid  on  his  return  from  Ireland,  whither  he  had  gone  for 
purposes  of  study,  and  is  intended  to  show  that  equally  good 
teaching  could  be  obtained  in  England.  With  this  in  view, 
Aldhelm  pours  out  all  the  resources  of  an  extremely  rich  and 
varied  vocabulary  upon  his  correspondent.  In  the  opening 
lines  the  figure  of  alliteration  is  employed  to  an  alarming  extent : 
out  of  sixteen  consecutive  words  fifteen  begin  w4th  a  p.  Once 
or  twice  the  writer  breaks  without  rime  or  reason  into  Greek 
(the  phrase  ad  doxam  onomatis  kyrii  is  a  good  example) ;  and 
Latinised  Greek  words  stud  the  text,  together  with  unfamiliar 
Latin.  Elaborate  passages  of  metaphor,  too,  occur — one  about 
bees,  of  which  Aldhelm  is  specially  fond — and  the  whole  affords 
as  concentrated  a  sample  of  the  author's  "  learned  "  style  as  it  is 
possible  to  find  in  a  small  compass.  An  interesting  feature 
in  the  theme  is  a  panegyric  on  Theodore  and  Hadrian,  who  are 
extolled  as  capable  of  routing  and  putting  to  shame  all  the 
scholars  of  Ireland. 

It  is  evident  that  this  letter  was  much  admired,  for  it  sur- 
vives in  a  good  many  copies,  in  juxtaposition  with  the  treatise 
on  virginity,  with  which  it  has  no  connection. 

The  two  books  in  prose  and  verse  on  virginity  were  the  most 
popular  of  Aldhelm's  writings.  A  short  sketch  of  their  con- 
tents must  be  given. 

The  prose  treatise  is  addressed  to  a  group  of  nuns,  some  of 
whom  have  English  names,  while  others  have  adopted  the 
names  of  virgin  saints.     They  are  headed  by  Hildelitha,  who 


82  Latin  Writings  in  England 

afterwards  became  abbess  of  Barking.  We  have,  first,  a  thanks- 
giving for  the  learning  and  virtue  of  the  community,  a  lengthy 
comparison  of  nuns  to  bees  and  a  panegyric  on  the  state  of 
virginity,  with  a  warning  against  the  eight  principal  vices. 
Then  follows  the  main  body  of  the  work,  consisting  of  a  number 
of  examples  of  men  and  women  who  have  excelled  in  chastity. 
The  first  order  of  these  is  taken  from  the  Old  Testament  (Elijah, 
Elisha,  Jeremiah,  Daniel,  the  Three  Children);  the  second 
from  the  New  (John  Baptist,  John  Evangelist,  Thomas,  Paul, 
Luke).  From  the  subsequent  history  of  the  church  come 
Clement  of  Rome,  Sylvester,  Ambrose,  Martin,  Gregory  Na- 
zianzen,  Basil,  Felix.  A  group  of  hermits  and  monks  follows : 
Antony,  Paul,  Hilarion,  John,  Benedict.  Then,  some  who 
suffered  for  chastity  as  confessors  (Malchus,  Narcissus,  Athan- 
asius)  or  as  martyrs  (Babylas,  Cosmas  and  Damian,  Chrysanthus 
and  Daria,  Julian  and  Basilissa).  Last  among  the  male  ex- 
amples are  two  more  hermits,  Amos  and  ApoUonius.  Next 
follow  the  heroines:  the  Virgin  Mary,  Cecilia,  Agatha,  Lucy, 
Justina,  Eugenia,  Agnes,  Thecla,  Eulalia,  Scholastica,  Christina, 
Dorothea,  Constantina,  Eustochium,  Demetrias,  Agape,  Irene 
and  Chionia,  Rufina  and  Secunda,  Anatolia  and  Victoria.  In 
most  of  these  cases  the  substance  of  the  saint's  history  is  given, 
sometimes  at  considerable  length. 

After  this,  a  few  examples  are  cited  of  persons  who  were  in 
some  way  notable  in  connection  with  chastity,  though  not  all 
celibate :  Joseph,  David,  Samson,  Abel,  Melchizedek  are  brought 
forward.  A  warning  against  splendour  of  attire  occupies  some 
space  and  is  followed  by  an  apology  for  the  style  of  the  work, 
as  having  been  written  under  the  pressure  of  many  occupations. 
The  conclusion  of  the  whole  is  a  request  for  the  prayers  of  the 
recipients. 

The  poetical  form  of  the  treatise  is  later  than  the  prosaic. 
It  begins  with  a  very  elaborate  double  acrostic,  the  initials  and 
finals  of  the  lines  forming  one  and  the  same  hexameter  verse : 
the  initials  are  to  be  read  downward  and  the  finals  upwards.  The 
book  is  this  time  addressed  to  an  abbess  Maxima,  whose  English 
name  does  not  appear  to  be  known.  The  arrangement  of  the 
poem  coincides  generally,  but  not  exactly  with  that  of  the 
prose  book.  The  preliminary  praise  of  virginity  is  shorter. 
Some   examples  (Thomas,    Felix,    Christina,    Dorothea)    are 


Aldhelm's  Style  83 

omitted,  and  a  couple  (Gen^asius  and  Protasius,  and  Jerome) 
added. 

After  the  story  of  Anatolia  and  Victoria  the  poem  diverges 
from  prose  and  gives  a  description  of  the  eight  principal  vices, 
modelled,  not  very  closely,  upon  Prudentius's  Psychomachia. 
It  ends  by  deprecating  criticism  and  by  asking  for  the  prayers 
of  the  reader. 

The  source  and  style  of  these  books  are  the  chief  matters 
which  engage  our  attention.  With  regard  to  the  source  of  the 
prose  treatise  in  particular,  we  see  that  Aldhelm  had  access  to  a 
very  considerable  library  of  Christian  authors.  It  included 
(taking  the  citations  as  they  occur  in  the  text)  an  unidentified 
work  in  which  an  angel  appears  as  speaker  (not  The  Shepherd 
of  Hermas),  Isidore,  Pseudo-Melito's  Passion  of  John,  Acts  of 
Thomas,  Revelation  of  Paul  (in  the  fiillest  Latin  text) ,  Recogni- 
tions of  Clement,  Acts  of  Sylvester,  Paulinus's  Life  of  Ambrose, 
Sulpicius  Severus,  lives  of  Gregory  and  Basil,  Athanasius's 
Life  of  Antony,  Vitae  Patrum,  Gregory's  Dialogues,  Rufinus's 
version  of  Eusebius,  Jerome's  letter  and  his  Life  of  Malchus, 
and  an  extensive  collection  of  Passions  of  Martyrs.  Among 
poets,  Vergil  and  Prosper  are  prominent.  In  this  enumeration 
only  the  obvious  sources  have  been  reckoned.  A  list  of  the 
books  whose  influence  is  perceptible  in  phrases  or  allusions 
would  be  of  equal  length. 

The  style  recalls  the  intricate  ornamentation  of  the  Celtic 
manuscripts  of  the  time.  The  thought  is  simple,  as  are  the 
ingredients  of  the  patterns  in  the  manuscripts ;  but  it  is  involved 
in  exhausting  periods,  and  wonderful  words  are  dotted  about 
in  them  like  spangles.  We  have  seen  that,  to  some  scholars 
in  this  age,  learning  meant  chiefly  the  knowledge  of  strange 
words.  Aldhelm  is  not  free  from  this  delusion.  A  fairly  close 
rendering  of  a  paragraph  from  the  prose  treatise  will  convey  a 
better  idea  of  his  manner  than  many  lines  of  description. 

Paul,  formerly  Saul,  the  Benjamin  of  the  prophecy,  at  morning 
devouring  the  prey  and  at  evening  dividing  the  spoil;  who,  by  his 
fearsome  bidding,  compelled  the  pythoness,  prophesying  the  vanities 
of  deceit  through  the  spirit  of  necromancy  and  thereby  heaping  up 
in  abundance  the  sumptuous  wealth  of  her  lords  and  enriching  them 
to  satiety  with  the  pleasant  treasures  of  her  gains  to  set  before  her  im- 
pudent lips  the  door  of  dumb  silence;  and  who,  marvellous  to  tell, 


84  Latin  Writings  in  England 

spent  unhurt  four  times  six  hours  in  the  deep  bottom  of  the  sea, 
and  bore  four  times  forty  blows,  less  one,  by  the  sharp  torment  of 
cruelty :  was  it  not  in  virtue  of  his  prerogative  of  intact  purity  that 
exploring  the  third  heaven,  he  beheld  the  souls  of  the  citizens  above 
with  virgin  glances,  and  sought  out  the  hidden  things  of  the  celestial 
host  in  an  experience  of  matters  that  might  not  be  spoken ;  though 
the  Revelation  (as  they  call  it)  of  Paul  babbles  of  his  visiting  the 
delights  of  flowery  paradise  in  a  golden  ship.  Yet  the  divine  law 
forbids  the  followers  of  the  catholic  faith  to  believe  anything  beyond 
what  the  ordinance  of  canonical  truth  publishes,  and  the  decisions 
of  orthodox  Fathers  in  written  decretals  have  commanded  us  to 
give  up  utterly  and  banish  far  from  us  this  and  other  fevered  fancies 
of  spurious  books,  as  thundering  words  horrifying  to  the  ear. 

Another  important  production  of  our  author — important  as 
exemplifying  his  secular  learning,  though  it  never  attained  the 
popularity  of  his  other  works — is  the  Letter  to  Acircius  (king 
Aldf rith  of  Northumbria) ,  which  contains  a  disquisition  on  the 
number  seven,  a  treatise  on  the  hexameter  and  a  collection  of 
riddles  in  verse.  The  portion  of  the  book  which  deals  with 
metre  is  illustrated  by  very  many  examples  from  Latin  poets. 
A  large  number  of  the  classical  quotations  must,  no  doubt,  be 
put  down  to  the  credit  of  the  grammarian  Audax,  from  whom 
much  of  the  text  is  borrowed ;  but  a  very  considerable  propor- 
tion is,  certainly,  derived  from  Aldhelm's  own  reading.  We 
may  be  sure,  for  instance,  that  he  had  access  to  Vergil,  Ovid, 
Lucan,  Cicero,  Pliny,  Sallust,  Solinus.  The  list  of  Christian 
poets  is  astonishing:  Juvencus,  the  author  of  the  versified 
Latin  Old  Testament,  who  is  now  called  Cyprianus,  Sedulius, 
Arator,  Alcimus  Avitus,  Prudentius,  Prosper,  Corippus,  Venan- 
tius  Fortunatus,  Paulinus  of  Perigueux  and  an  otherwise  un- 
known Paulus  Quaestor  are  all  used.  A  little  group  of  Spanish 
authorities,  in  particular  the  grammatical  work  of  Julian  of 
Toledo,  is  a  curious  feature.  The  traces  of  Horace,  Juvenal, 
Persius,  Seneca,  Dracontius,  Sidonius  are  slight.  Orosius, 
Lactantius,  Junilius  and  a  number  of  grammarians  may  close 
our  catalogue,  which,  it  will  be  recognised,  is  a  very  impressive 
one. 

The  riddles  which  occur  in  the  midst  of  this  treatise  are 
among  the  most  attractive  part  of  Aldhelm's  work.  They  are 
modelled  on  those  of  Symphosius  (a  fifth  century  writer)  but 
are  not,  like  his,  confined  to  the  limits  of  three  lines  apiece. 


.^ 


Aldhelm's  Literary  Work  85 

They  are,  for  the  most  part,  ingenious  little  descriptions  of 
simple  objects :  e.g. — ^to  take  a  series  at  random — the  locust,  the 
nightcrow,  the  gnat,  the  spindle,  the  cupping-glass,  the  even- 
ing, the  dagger,  the  bubble.  That  this  form  of  wit-sharpening 
made  a  great  appeal  to  the  mind  of  our  ancestors  is  amply 
evident  from  many  passages  in  the  Old  English  literature, — 
notably  The  Dialogue  of  Salomon  and  Saturn,  and  the  documents 
related  thereto ;  and  are  not  the  periphrases  of  all  early  Scandi- 
navian poetry  exemplifications  of  the  same  tendency?  As  we 
have  seen,  Aldhelm's  riddles  were  copiously  imitated  by  Eng- 
lishmen in  later  centuries.^ 

We  have  seen  something  of  the  number  of  Latin  authors 
who  were  known  to  Aldhelm.  It  may  be  added  here  that,  in  a 
letter  to  Hedda,  bishop  of  Winchester,  he  describes  himself, 
apparently,  as  engaged  in  the  study  of  Roman  law,  and,  cer- 
tainly, as  occupied  with  metres  and  with  the  science  of  astro- 
nomical calculation. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  be  able  to  show  that,  besides  < 
knowing  the  Greek  language  (as  we  are  sure  he  did),  he  pos- 
sessed Greek  books,  apart  from  Latin  versions;  but  it  is  not 
really  possible  to  find  much  evidence  to  this  effect.  He  once  > 
cites  Judith  "  according  to  the  Septuagint " ;  in  another  place  he 
calls  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  the  Praxapostolos ;  elsewhere  he 
gives  the  name  of  a  work  of  St.  Basil  in  Greek,  and  mentions 
Homer  and  Hesiod.  Not  much  can  be  built  on  these  small 
foundations.  The  probability  is  that  he  read  Greek  books 
when  studying  under  Hadrian,  but  that  in  later  life  he  possessed 
none  of  his  own. 

Summing  up  the  literary  work  of  Aldhelm,  we  find  in  him  a 
good  representative  of  the  pupils  of  Theodore  and  Hadrian,  on 
whom  both  Roman  and  Greek  influences  have  been  exercised ; 
and  we  see  in  him  also  one  for  whom  the  grandiloquence  of  the 
Celt,  the  love  of  an  out-of-the  way  vocabulary,  of  sound  rather 
at  the  cost  of  sense,  had  great  attraction.  We  cannot  truly  de- 
clare that  the  literature  of  the  world  would  be  much  the  poorer 
for  the  loss  of  his  writings ;  but  it  is  fair  to  say  that  there  is  in 
them,  despite  all  their  affectation,  a  great  deal  of  freshness 
and  vigour ;  that  they  are  marked  by  the  faults  of  youth  rather 
than  by  those  of  senescence.   That  they  were  immensely  popular 

>  See  ante,  Chapter  iv.  p.  66. 


86  Latin  Writings  in  England 

we  can  see  from  the  number  of  existing  copies  of  the  treatise 
on  virginity  and  the  letter  to  Aldfrith.  Most  of  these  are  early 
and  are  distinguished  by  the  beauty  of  their  script.  One,  now 
at  Lambeth,  has  a  rather  well-known  frontispiece  representing 
the  author  and  a  group  of  nuns. 

Additional  evidence  of  the  importance  of  Aldhelm  as  a 
literary  figure  is  afforded  by  the  existence  of  what  we  may  call 
the  Aldhelmian  school  of  English  Latinists.  The  works  of  these 
are  neither  many  in  number  nor  large  in  compass ;  but  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  writers  covers  a  fairly  considerable  space  both 
geographically  and  in  time.  Little  attention  has  hitherto  been 
paid  to  them  in  this  country,  and,  on  all  accounts,  they  deserve 
notice. 

First  among  them  may  be  reckoned  a  series  of  five  interest- 
ing little  poems  which  have  been  preserved  (as  have  several  of 
Aldhelm's  letters)  among  the  correspondence  of  St.  Boniface. 
They  are  written  in  pairs  of  eight-syllabled  lines. 

The  first  of  these  has  in  its  opening  couplet  an  allusion  to 
Aldhelm's  name,  and  seems  to  be  addressed  to  him  by  a  cantor 
at  Malmesbury.  In  a  very  spirited  fashion  it  describes  a  storm 
in  late  June,  which  unroofed  the  dormitory  or  some  other  of 
the  buildings  of  a  monastery  where  the  writer  was.  It  is  not 
easy  to  see  whether  this  place  was  Malmesbury  abbey  or  a 
monastic  house  in  Devonshire.  The  second  poem  is,  as  appears 
from  an  accompanying  letter,  by  one  Aethilwald  (usually  iden- 
tified with  Ethelbald,  king  of  the  Mercians  from  716  to  757)  and 
describes  a  visit  to  Rome,  dwelling  with  great  particularity 
upon  some  silken  fabrics  which  the  pilgrims  had  brought  back 
with  them.  Of  the  remaining  three,  one  is  a  short  prayer,  the 
next  an  address  to  Aldhelm,  who  is  called  Cassis  prisca  {i.e. 
Old  helmet) ,  most  likely  by  Aethilwald,  and  the  last  is  supposed 
to  be  Aldhelm's  reply  thereto.  These  poems  are  very  favour- 
able specimens  of  the  Aldhelmian  style. 

Two  direct  imitators  of  Aldhelm,  Tatwin  and  Eusebius, 
come  next  under  consideration.  Both  were  men  of  eminence : 
Tatwin  died  archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  734,  and  Eusebius 
is  almost  certainly  identical  with  Hwaetberct,  abbot  of  Wear- 
mouth  and  Jarrow  from  716.  Two  collections  of  riddles  in 
Latin  hexameters  by  these  persons  have  survived.  In  that  of 
Tatwin  ingenuity  is  prominent :  he  makes  the  initials  and  finals 


Bede  87 

of  the  first  line  of  each  riddle  into  an  acrostic  of  hexameters. 
That  of  Eusebius  is  supplementary  to  Tatwin's ;  it  makes  up  the 
forty  riddles  of  the  latter  to  one  hundred,  the  number  contained 
in  Aldhelm's  collection,  which  had  undoubtedly  ser\^ed  as  a 
model  to  both  writers.  St.  Boniface  (d.  755)  is  the  last  note- 
worthy individual  w^ho  can  be  claimed  as  a  member  of  this 
school.  He  employs  the  short  eight-syllabled  lines  as  the 
vehicle  of  an  acrostic  on  the  words  Nithardus  vive  felix;  and  he 
writes  a  series  of  enigmas  on  the  virtues  and  vices,  in  hexa- 
meters, in  which  the  acrostic  is  extensively  employed.  Some 
of  his  letters,  too,  are  couched  in  the  true  Aldhelmian  style. 
Several  of  his  correspondents,  moreover,  and  the  authors  of  a 
good  many  letters  not  addressed  to  him  which  are  nevertheless 
preserved  with  his  own,  bear  the  same  stamp.  Among  them 
are  three  or  four  short  poems  in  eight-syllabled  metre.  Espe- 
cially noteworthy  are  a  letter  from  Lul  and  others  to  an  abbess 
Cuneburga  and  an  anonymous  letter  to  an  abbess  and  a  nun. 

The  Aldhelmian  school,  with  the  single  exception  of  Euse- 
bius (Hwaetberct) ,  consists  of  men  nurtured  in  the  south  and 
west  of  England.  The  two  other  great  men  who  remain  to  be 
considered  are  representatives  of  the  north.  We  have  hinted 
already  that  the  Latin  culture  of  the  northern  English  was 
more  directly  dependent  upon  Rome  than  was  that  of  Canter- 
bury, with  its  eastern  flavour,  or  that  of  the  west,  where  Celtic 
influence  may  be  suspected.  We  do  not  forget  Aidan's  work 
in  the  north;  yet  that  had  but  faint  effects  upon  literature; 
and  the  fact  remains  that  the  eccentricities  and  affectations  of 
Aldhelm  have  no  parallel  in  the  work  of  Bede. 

Bede  is  by  far  the  greatest  name  which  our  period  presents. 
Like  the  later  Alcuin,  he  was  of  European  reputation;  but  he 
owed  that  reputation  to  the  sheer  excellence  of  his  books, 
Alcuin  occupied  a  great  and  influential  position,  and  used  the 
opportunities  which  it  gave  him  with  the  best  effect.  But  he 
has  left  no  writing  which  we  value  much  for  its  own  sake. 
Bede,  on  the  other  hand,  made  an  indelible  mark  on  the  litera- 
ture of  succeeding  centuries,  and  our  debt  to  him  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated. 

Not  many  lives  of  great  men  have  been  less  eventful.  It 
seems  probable  that  the  longest  journe}^  he  ever  took  was  from 


88  Latin  Writings  in  England 

Jarrow  to  York,  and  that  the  greatest  crisis  of  his  life  was  the 
pestilence  in  686  which  decimated  the  monks  of  Jarrow.  He 
died  in  735  at  Jarrow,  where,  practically,  his  whole  life  of  sixty- 
three  years  had  been  spent.  The  story  of  his  last  hours,  as 
Cuthbert  (afterwards  abbot  of  Wearmouth  and  Jarrow)  tells 
it  in  his  famous  letter  to  Cuthwin,  is  of  unapproached  beauty 
in  its  kind.  One  of  the  latest  utterances  of  the  great  scholar 
is  an  index  to  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  whole  man. 

"It  is  time,"  he  said,  "if  so  it  seem  good  to  my  Maker,  that  I 
should  be  set  free  from  the  flesh,  and  go  to  Him  who,  when  I  was  not, 
fashioned  me  out  of  nothing.  I  have  lived  a  long  time,  and  my  merci- 
ful Judge  has  ordained  my  life  well  for  me.  The  time  for  me  to  be 
set  free  is  at  hand,  for  indeed  my  soul  much  desires  to  behold  my 
King  Christ  in  His  beauty." 

Over  and  over  again  has  the  life  of  Bede  been  sketched,  and 
the  long  and  varied  list  of  his  works  reviewed  and  discussed. 
By  none  has  this  been  better  done  than  by  Plummer,  in  con- 
nection with  his  admirable  edition  of  the  History.  From  this 
source  we  borrow  the  chronology  of  Bede's  writings  which  will 
be  here  set  forth. 

To  the  period  between  691  and  703  belong  the  tracts  on 
metre,  on  figures  of  speech  in  Scripture,  on  orthography ;  to  703 
the  small  v/ork  De  Temporihus;  to  708  the  letter  to  Plegwin  on 
the  six  ages.  The  metrical  life  of  Cuthbert  was  written  before 
705.  In  or  before  716  fall  the  commentaries  on  the  Apocalypse, 
Acts,  catholic  Epistles,  Luke,  Samuel  and  two  exegetical  letters 
to  Acca ;  after  716  the  history  of  the  abbots  of  Wearmouth  and 
Jarrow,  and  commentary  on  Mark;  about  720  the  prose  life  of 
Cuthbert  and  commentary  on  Genesis;  before  725  the  book  De 
Natura  Rerum;  in  725  the  large  work  De  Temporum  Ratione; 
in  725-731  commentaries  on  Ezra  and  N ehemiah,  and  books  on 
the  Tabernacle  and  the  Temple ;  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the 
English  Race  in  731;  Retractationes  on  the  Acts  and  the  letter 
to  Egbert  must  be  placed  after  this.  For  the  following  works 
no  date  can  be  accurately  fixed :  on  the  Holy  Places,  questions 
on  the  books  of  Kings,  commentaries  on  Proverbs,  Canticles,  the 
Song  of  Habakkuk,  Tobit,  the  martyrology,  homilies,  hymns 
and  a  few  minor  tracts. 

The  names  of  these  books  suggest  to  us,  first  of  all,  Bede's 
industry  and,  next,  his  wide  range  of  interests.     Theology,  no 


Bede's  Historical  Works  89 

doubt,  is  a  dominant  factor  in  the  list,  but  \vc  have,  besides, 
natural  science,  grammar  and  history;  nor  is  poetry  excluded. 

It  is  not  possible  here  to  do  more  than  briefly  characterise 
the  mass  of  his  works.  Of  the  grammatical  treatises  and  those 
which  relate  to  natural  science  it  may  be  said  that  they  are, 
to  a  very  large  extent,  compilations.  To  Pliny  and  Isidore,  in 
particular,  Bede  owes  much  in  the  book  De  Natura  Rerwn. 
Similarly,  his  commentaries  are  often  little  more  than  catenae 
of  extracts  from  the  four  Latin  Doctors.  Probably  the  supple- 
mentary comment  on  the  Acts,  called  Retractationes,  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  to  us  of  the  series,  since  it  demonstrates 
Bede's  knowledge  of  Greek,  and  shows  that  he  had  before  him, 
when  writing,  the  Graeco-Latin  copy  of  the  Acts  already  men- 
tioned, which  is  now  in  the  Bodleian. 

The  historical  works  are,  of  course,  those  which  distinguish 
Bede  above  all  others.  There  are  four  books  which  come  under 
this  head.  Two  of  them  may  be  very  shortly  dismissed.  First, 
the  Martyrology.  We  cannot  be  sure  how  much  of  this,  in  its 
present  form,  is  Bede's,  for  it  has  been  enlarged,  as  was  natural 
enough,  by  many  hands.  The  popularity  of  it  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  it  formed  the  basis  of  recensions  by  Florus  of 
Lyons,  Rabanus  of  Mainz,  Ado  of  Vienne,  Notker  of  St.  Gall 
and  Usuard.  Next  the  short  work  De  Temporibus,  written 
in  705.  This  consists  of  a  few  brief  chapters  on  the  divisions  of 
time  and  the  calculations  connected  with  the  obser\^ance  of 
Easter,  and  ends  with  a  ver}^  curt  chronicle  of  the  chief  events 
in  the  six  ages  of  the  world's  history.  In  725  Bede  expanded  this 
little  tract  into  a  much  larger  book,  De  Temporum  Ratione,  and 
the  chronicle  of  the  six  ages  of  the  world  with  which  this  con- 
cludes has  been  one  of  the  most  far-reaching  in  its  influence  of 
all  his  works.  It  ser\-ed  as  a  model  and  as  a  source  of  informa- 
tion to  numberless  subsequent  chroniclers.  "In  chronology," 
says  Plummer,  "  Bede  has  the  enoiTnous  merit  of  being  the  first 
chronicler  who  gave  the  date  from  Christ's  birth,  in  addition  to 
the  year  of  the  world,  and  thus  introduced  the  use  of  the  Diony- 
sian  era  into  western  Europe."  One  of  the  main  topics  of  the 
book,  the  methods  of  calculating  the  date  of  Easter,  is  one 
which  interested  the  men  of  his  day  far  more  than  ourselves. 
A  principal  reason  for  this  lies  in  the  nearness  and  urgency  of 
the  controversies  which  so  Ion?  divided  the  Celtic  from  the 


90  Latin  Writings  in  England 

English  church  on  this  subject.  It  was  also  one  of  the  few  which 
brought  the  mathematical  side  of  men's  intellects  into  play  in 
the  sen,^ice  of  religion. 

The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  English  Race  is,  as  we 
know,  Bede's  greatest  and  best  work.  If  a  panegyric  were 
likely  to  induce  our  readers  to  turn  to  it"  for  themselves,  that 
panegyric  should  be  attempted  here.  Probably,  however,  a 
brief  statement  of  the  contents  and  sources  of  the  five  books  will 
be  more  to  the  purpose.  The  first  book,  then,  beginning  with 
a  description  of  Britain,  carries  the  history  from  the  invasion 
of  Julius  Caesar  to  the  year  603,  after  the  arrival  of  Augustine. 
Among  the  sources  used  are  Pliny,  Solinus,  Orosius,  Eutropius, 
Marcellinus  Comes,  Gildas,  probably  the  Historia  Brittonum,  a 
Passion  of  St.  Alban  and  the  Life  of  St.  Germanus  of  Auxerre  by 
Constantius. 

The  second  book  begins  with  the  death  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
and  ends  in  633,  when  Edwin  of  Northumbria  was  killed  and 
Paulinus  retired  to  Rochester. 

It  is  in  this  book  that  the  wonderful  scene  is  described  in 
which  Edwin  of  Northumbria  takes  counsel  with  his  nobles  as 
to  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  the  Gospel  as  preached  by 
Paulinus;  and  here  occurs  the  unforgetable  simile  of  the  spar- 
row flying  out  of  the  winter  night  into  the  brightly-lighted  hall 
and  out  again  into  the  dark. 

In  the  third  book  we  proceed  as  far  as  664,  In  this  section 
the  chief  actors  are  Oswald,  Aidan,  Fursey,  Cedd  and  Wilfred. 

The  fourth  book,  beginning  with  the  death  of  Deusdedit  in 
664  and  the  subsequent  arrival  of  his  successor  Theodore,  with 
abbot  Hadrian,  deals  with  events  to  the  year  698.  The  chief 
figures  are  Chad,  Wilfrid,  Ethelburga,  Etheldreda,  Hilda, 
Caedmon,  Cuthbert. 

In  the  fifth  and  last  book  we  have  stories  of  St.  John  of 
Beverley,  of  the  vision  of  Drythelm,  and  others,  accounts  of 
Adamnan,  Aldhelm,  Wilfrid,  the  letter  of  abbot  Ceolfrid  to 
Nechtan,  king  of  the  Picts,  the  end  of  the  Paschal  controversy, 
a  statement  of  the  condition  of  the  country  in  731,  a  brief 
annalistic  summary  and  a  list  of  the  author's  works. 

In  the  dedication  of  the  History  to  Ceolwulf ,  king  of  North- 
umbria, Bede  enumerates  the  friends  who  had  helped  him  in 
the  collection  of  materials,  whether  by  oral  or  written  informa- 


Bede's  "Ecclesiastical  History"  9^ 

tion.  The  chief  of  these  were  Albinus,  abbot  of  Canterbury, 
Nothelm,  afterwards  archbishop,  who,  among  other  things, 
had  copied  documents  preserved  in  the  archives  of  Rome, 
and  Daniel,  bishop  of  Winchester.  Bede  used  to  the  full, 
besides,  his  opportunities  of  intercourse  with  the  clergy  and 
monks  of  the  north  who  had  known  the  great  men  of  whom  he 
writes. 

It  is  almost  an  impertinence,  we  feel,  to  dwell  upon  the 
great  qualities  which  the  History  displays.  That  sincerity  of 
purpose  and  love  of  truth  are  foremost  in  the  author's  mind 
we  are  always  sure,  with  whatever  eyes  we  may  view  some  of 
the  tales  which  he  records.  "Where  he  gives  a  story  on 
merely  hearsay  evidence,  he  is  careful  to  state  the  fact";  and 
it  may  be  added  that  where  he  has  access  to  an  original  and 
authoritative  document  he  gives  his  reader  the  full  benefit  of  it. 

From  the  literary  point  of  view  the  book  is  admirable. 
There  is  no  affectation  of  learning,  no  eccentricity  of  voca- 
bulary. It  seems  to  us  to  be  one  of  the  great  services  which 
Bede  rendered  to  English  writers  that  he  gave  currency  to 
a  direct  and  simple  style.  This  merit  is,  in  part,  due  to  the 
tradition  of  the  northern  schoool  in  which  he  was  brought 
up ;  but  it  is  to  his  own  credit  that  he  was  not  led  away  by 
the  fascinations  of  the  Latinity  of  Aldhelm. 

The  popularity  of  the  History  was  immediate  and  great. 
Nor  was  it  confined  to  England.  The  two  actually  oldest 
copies  which  we  possess,  both  of  which  may  have  been  written 
before  Bede  died,  were  both  produced,  it  seems,  on  the  conti- 
nent, one  (now  at  Namur)  perhaps  at  St.  Hubert's  abbey  in 
the  Ardennes,  the  other  (at  Cambridge)  in  some  such  conti- 
nental English  colony  as  Epternach. 

The  two  lives  of  St.  Cuthbert  and  the  lives  of  the  abbots 
of  Wearmouth  and  Jarrow  must  not  be  forgotten.  The  last- 
named,  based  to  some  extent  upon  an  anonymous  earlier 
work,  has  very  great  beauty  and  interest;  not  many  pictures 
of  monastic  life  are  so  sane,  so  human  and,  at  the  same  time, 
so  productive  of  reverence  and  affection  in  the  reader. 

The  two  lives  of  St.  Cuthbert  are  less  important  in  all  ways. 
The  metrical  one  is  the  most  considerable  piece  of  verse  at- 
tempted by  Bede;  that  in  prose  is  a  not  very  satisfactory 
expansion  of  an  earlier  life  by  a  Lindisfame  monk. 


9-  Latin  Writings  in  England 

Enough  has  probably  been  said  to  give  a  general  idea  of 
the  character  of  Bede's  studies  and  acquirements.  Nothing 
could  be  gained  by  transcribing  the  lists  of  authors  known 
to  him,  which  are  accessible  in  the  works  of  Plummer  and  of 
Manitius.  There  is  nothing  to  make  us  think  that  he  had 
access  to  classical  or  Christian  authors  of  importance  not 
known  to  us.  He  quotes  many  Christian  poets,  but  not  quite 
so  many  as  Aldhelm,  and,  clearly,  does  not  take  so  much  interest 
as  his  predecessor  in  pagan  authors. 

The  letter  to  Egbert  of  York,  perhaps  the  latest  document 
we  possess  from  Bede's  pen,  deserves  a  special  and  separate 
mention.  It  is,  in  brief,  a  pastoral  epistle;  and  it  gives  (what 
we  could  only  gather  indirectly  from  his  other  works)  the 
clearest  evidence  of  Bede's  lively  interest  in  the  religious  life 
of  the  people  at  large,  and  his  wise  and  noble  conception  of 
the  duties  of  a  Christian  minister.  His  advice  to  Egbert  is 
prompted  by  "a  real  and  unassuming  spirit  of  humility  and 
affection,"  and  it  is  thoroughly  practical  in  its  statement, 
alike  of  the  abuses  which  need  reform,  and  of  the  means  of 
reforming  them.  The  suggestions  offered  by  Bede  are  those 
of  a  man  at  once  spiritually  minded  and  versed  in  the  affairs  of 
his  time ;  they  are,  moreover,  based  on  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  history  of  the  church  with  which  he  is  dealing.  Rarely 
as  he  may  have  trodden  the  regions  outside  the  walls  of  his 
monastery,  it  is  plain  from  this  letter  alone  that  Bede  may 
be  reckoned  as  one  of  the  most  effective  contributors,  by 
his  advice  and  influence,  to  the  spreading  of  Christianity  in 
northern  England. 

No  enumeration  of  works,  no  accumulation  of  epithets 
will  give  the  picture  of  a  man's  mind.  And  it  is  the  person- 
ality of  Bede  which  we  come  to  regard  with  affection,  when 
we  have  read  the  book  into  which  he  has  infused  most  of  his 
own  character.  That  book  is  the  History,  and  from  the  study 
of  it  few  will  rise  without  the  feeling  that  Bede  was  one  of  the 
best  of  men. 

It  cannot  be  maintained  that  the  influence  of  Alcuin's 
writings  upon  the  literature  of  his  country  was  very  important. 
As  a  product  of  the  great  school  of  York,  he  does,  indeed,  b(iar 
witness  to  the  admirable  training  which  that  school  could  fur- 


/. 


Alcuin  93 

nish.  The  debt  which  the  schools  of  Charles  the  Great  owed, 
through  Alcuin,  to  England  must  never  be  forgotten.  This  is 
the  central  fact,  so  far  as  England  is  concerned,  in  Alcuin's 
career.  His  written  works,  mostly  produced  on  the  continent, 
were  not  of  a  kind  to  affect  very  markedly  the  development  of 
literature;  and  the  condition  of  England  during  the  period  of 
Alcuin's  residence  abroad  was  such  that  English  scholars  could 
make  no  use  of  what  he  was  able  to  impart.  The  fact  is  that, 
very  shortly  before  Alcuin  left  England  for  ever,  the  Scandi- 
navians had  begun  that  desolating  series  of  raids  upon  this 
country  which  ended  by  exterminating  the  learning  and  liter- 
ature of  Northumbria  and  paralysed  intellectual  effort  all  over 
the  land. 

In  an  often  quoted  poem  on  the  saints  of  York,  Alcuin 
enumerates  the  principal  authors  whose  works  were  to  be 
found  in  the  library  collected  there  by  Egbert  and  Albert. 
Within  a  generation  after  the  poem  was  written,  that  library 
had  ceased  to  exist ;  and  so  had  that  earlier  treasury  of  books 
at  Weamiouth  which  Benedict  Biscop  commended  in  the  last 
years  of  his  life  to  the  special  care  of  his  monks.  The  end  of  the 
eighth  century  and  the  course  of  the  ninth  saw  learning  gradu- 
ally obliterated  in  England,  until  the  efforts  of  Alfred  revived 
an  interest  in  the  things  of  the  mind  among  his  countrymen. 

Had  it  not  been  for  this  catastrophe  we  might  have  found 
English  scholars  taking  part  with  Alcuin  in  the  adoptionist 
controversy,  or  contributing  to  the  revision  of  the  Vulgate 
which  is  associated  with  his  name.  As  it  is,  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, to  the  historian  of  our  Latin  literature,  is  almost  a  blank. 

Alcuin,  to  resume,  was  not  a  great  writer.  The  clearest 
indications  of  his  general  culture  and  his  manifold  activities 
may,  perhaps,  be  gathered  from  his  numerous  poems  and  his 
letters.  These  latter,  with  some  of  his  grammatical  works, 
were  the  only  part  of  his  writings  which  attained  popularity 
in  England.  His  controversial  books  are  of  less  enduring 
interest :  it  is  given  to  few  to  follow  with  intelligent  appreciation 
the  dispute  which  he  waged  with  Felix  of  Urgel  and  Elipandus 
of  Toledo  upon  the  question  whether  Christ,  in  His  human 
nature,  was  or  was  not  to  be  called  the  ''adoptive"  Son  of 
God.     The  liturgical  works,  again — the  homiliary,  lectionary 


94  Latin  Writings  in  England 

and  sacramentary — which  made  so  deep  a  mark  upon  the 
church-life  of  the  continent,  are  works  of  compilation.  As 
to  the  revision  of  the  text  of  the  Latin  Bible,  clear  evidence 
that  it  was  the  work  of  Alcuin  is  not  yet  producible;  but  the 
probability  is  very  strong  that  he  was  at  least  prominent,  if 
not  supreme,  in  the  undertaking. 

But,  though  the  tale  of  Alcuin 's  labours  is  an  imposing 
one,  it  is  the  intellectual  stimulus  which  he  imparted,  and 
the  long  line  of  scholars  which  owed  to  him  its  existence, 
that  forms  his  true  monument.  He  ranks  with  Bede  as  an 
inspirer  of  men;  but  the  vehicle  by  which  his  inspiration 
was  conveyed  was  rather  the  voice  of  the  teacher  than  the 
written  words. 

With  Alcuin  we  close  the  list  of  the  considerable  authors 
who  fall  within  our  period.  But  there  still  remain  some  few 
writings  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  which  demand  a 
word  of  notice.  These  consist  mainly  of  lives  of  saints, 
visions,  poems  and  devotional  literature. 

The  anonymous  lives  of  the  abbots  of  Wearmouth  and 
Jarrow,  and  the  life  of  Cuthbert  by  a  Lindisfarne  monk — both 
so  extensively  used  by  Bede — have  been  mentioned  already. 
The  earliest  life  of  Gregory  the  Great,  to  which  an  English 
origin  is  attributed,  should  not  be  forgotten  here.  It  is  dis- 
cussed by  Plummer  in  an  appendix  to  the  edition  of  Bede's 
History. 

More  important  than  this,  from  the  literary  point  of  view, 
are  the  lives  of  Wilfrid  of  York  by  Eddius  Stephanus,  and  of 
Guthlac  by  Felix.  Both  of  these  belong  to  the  eighth  century. 
The  former  begins  in  a  way  which  may  indicate  either  indo 
lence  or  modesty  on  the  part  of  its  author,  who  transcribes, 
with  few  alterations  and  without  acknowledgment,  the  pre- 
face of  the  anonymous  life  of  Cuthbert.  The  reading  of  the  life 
will  probably  conduce  to  the  most  favourable  interpretation 
being  placed  upon  this  proceeding;  for,  unflinching  partisan 
as  he  is,  Eddius  makes  us  think  of  him  kindly.  Many  a  man 
would  have  spoken  much  more  bitterly  of  the  opponents  of 
his  hero;  and,  though  Eddius  persistently  and  gallantly  dis- 
guises that  hero's  faults,  we  do  not  feel  so  much  that  he  is  a  bad 
historian  as  that  he  is  a  wrongly  faithful  friend. 

Felix,  the  biographer  of  Guthlac,  is  far  more  picturesque  in 


Ethelwulf  95 

style  than  Eddius.  Unlike  the  latter,  he  has  fallen  under  the 
spell  of  Aldhelm.  He  has  been  fascinated,  too,  by  the  tales  of 
the  demon  hordes  who  haunted  the  lonely  hermit  of  the  fens, 
and  has  portrayed  them  in  language  which,  whether  directly 
or  not,  was  reproduced  in  vernacular  poetry  not  many  gener- 
ations later. 

Closely  connected  with  these  biographies  of  saints  are  the 
visions  of  the  next  world.  Several  of  them  are  reported  by 
Bede,  notably  the  vision  of  Fursey,  the  Irish  hermit,  and  of 
Drythelm.  Two  more  (one  of  them  in  a  fragmentary  condition) 
are  preserved  among  the  correspondence  of  Boniface.  Like 
the  life  of  Guthlac  these  apocalypses  had  firm  hold  upon 
popular  imagination,  and  some  of  them  appear  in  the  homilies 
of  Aelfric  in  an  English  dress.  They  owed  their  origin,  it 
may  be  remarked,  in  a  great  measure  to  the  Dialogues  of  Greg- 
ory and  the  apocryphal  Revelation  of  Paul — which  latter,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  known  to  Aldhelm.  It  is  possible  that  the 
far  older  Revelation  of  Peter  may  have  survived  in  some  form 
accessible  to  the  English  church  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
centuries.  Evidence  is  not  wanting  to  show  that  an  Italian 
apocalypse  of  the  seventh  century,  that  of  St.  Barontus  of 
Pistoja,  was  studied  in  England  not  long  after  our  period. 

In  the  department  of  poetry  the  only  considerable  work 
which  remains  to  be  mentioned  is  the  poem  of  one  Ethelwulf 
upon  the  history  of  a  monastery  the  identity  of  which  is  not 
yet  certainly  established.  The  house  in  question  was  clearly 
connected  with  Lindisfame,  and  is  thought  to  have  been  at 
Crayke  near  York.  The  poem  is  dedicated  to  Egbert,  who  was 
bishop  of  Lindisfarne  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  ninth  century, 
and  is  constructed  on  the  model  of  Alcuin's  versified  history 
of  the  saints  of  the  church  of  York.  It  contains  among  other 
things  an  account  of  a  vision  of  the  next  world,  similar  to 
those  mentioned  in  the  last  paragraph. 

Of  devotional  literature,  by  which  we  mean  more  particu- 
larly collections  of  prayers  and  hymns  for  private  use,  there  is  a 
fairly  large  quantity  preserv^ed  in  manuscripts  which  belong 
to  the  period  under  consideration.  The  most  remarkable 
of  these  is  perhaps  the  volume  called  the  Book  of  Cerne,  now 
in  the  University  Library  at  Cambridge.  Both  Celtic  and 
Spanish  influences  have  been  traced  in  many  of  the  compo- 


9^  Latin  Writings  in  England 

sitions  in  this  and  other  like  works.  Much  light  may  eventu- 
ally be  thrown  by  this  class  of  literature  upon  the  intellectual 
as  well  as  the  religious  surroundings  of  the  clergy  and  monks 
of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries. 

A  not  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  Latin  Writings  of  these 
same  centuries  consists  of  documents  connected  with  church 
law.  Books  called  Penitentials  exist  under  the  names  of 
Theodore  Bede  and  Egbert  of  York;  and  there  are,  besides, 
canons  of  church  councils  and  the  like.  But  these  have  really 
no  claim  to  the  name  of  literature  and  a  mere  mention  of  them 
must  suffice. 

These,  then,  are  the  chief  remains  of  the  Latin  literature 
which  was  produced  in  England  before  the  time  of  Alfred. 
The  period  of  greatest  activity  lasted,  we  have  seen,  for  about 
a  hundred  years,  from  a.d.  690  to  790.  It  is  marked  by  the 
rise  of  two  great  schools,  those  of  Canterbury  and  York,  and 
by  the  work  of  one  great  scholar.  The  south  of  England  pro- 
duced works  characterised  by  a  rather  perverted  and  fanciful 
erudition.  It  was  the  north  which  gave  birth  to  Bede,  the  one 
writer  of  that  age  whose  works  are  of  first-rate  value,  and 
to  Alcuin,  whose  influence  was  supreme  in  the  schools  of  the 
continent. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Alfred  and  the  Old  English  Prose 
of  his  Reign 

THE  reign  of  Alfred  acquired  its  chief  glory  from  the 
personality  of  the  king.  He  had  many  titles  to 
fame.  His  character  was  made  up  of  so  many 
diverse  elements  that  he  seemed,  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
to  be  military  leader,  lawgiver,  scholar  and  saint,  and  these 
elements  were  so  combined  that  the  balance  of  the  whole  was 
never  disturbed.  In  the  minds  of  posterity  Alfred  lives  as  the 
type  of  an  ideal  Englishman. 

In  each  of  the  departments  of  his  activity  the  king's  work  J 
was  of  permanent  value.  His  efforts,  though  essentially 
pioneer  in  character,  laid  a  solid  and  permanent  foundation 
for  the  superstructure  which  was  to  be  raised  by  his  successors. 
As  king,  he  ruled  a  portion  only  of  modern  England  and  left 
much  to  be  completed  by  his  descendants.  But  the  centralis- 
ing policy  which  he  inaugurated  and  successfully  realised — 
the  policy  of  making  Wessex  the  nucleus  of  England's  expan- 
sion— alone  made  possible  the  growth  of  an  enlarged  kingdom. 
Alfred's  ideals  for  Wessex  reflect  a  large  vision  and  much 
practical  wisdom,  and  the  reign  is  as  remarkable  for  its  educa- 
tional as  for  its  political  progress.  His  conceptions  were  cos-] 
mopolitan  rather  than  insular.  He  never  lost  sight  of  the 
importance  of  keeping  his  kingdom  in  organic  relation  with 
European  civilisation — a  lesson  stamped  upon  his  mind  ever 
since,  in  his  early  years  (856),  during  the  pontificate  of  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  popes,  Leo  IV,  he  had  visited  Rome  and 
the  court  of  Charles  the  Bald.  This  visit  made  a  vivid  impres- 
sion upon  Alfred's  mind.  His  father's  marriage  with  the 
emperor's  daughter  Judith  cemented  relationships  with  the 
continent  and  the  insularity  of  Britain  was  henceforth  broken 

VOL.  II.— 7  97 


98  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

{down.  The  importance  for  literature  of  this  emergence  from 
(isolation  cannot  be  over-estimated.  Charles  the  Great  had 
gathered  round  him  at  Aachen  a  cultured  circle  of  scholars 
and  writers,  and  had  promoted  a  renascence  of  classical  study, 
the  influence  of  which  was  still  powerful  in  the  days  of  Charles 
the  Bald.  The  illuminated  j\lSS.  of  the  French  court  of  the 
ninth  century — the  St.  Denis  and  Metz  Bibles,  the  Psalter  and 
book  of  Gospels,  in  particular — are  conspicuous  examples  of 
artistic  skill.  After  his  accession  Alfred  looked  to  the  Prankish 
empire  for  assistance  in  his  task  of  reviving  learning  in  Wessex. 
At  his  request,  Grimbald,  a  monk  of  St.  Bertini  in  Flanders, 
and  John  of  Cor\^ey  came  over  to  Britain,  and  were  appointed 
abbots  of  Winchester  and  Aethelney  respectively.  The  king 
diligently  promoted  scholarship,  and  himself  undertook  to 
translate  into  West  Saxon  recognised  works  in  Latin  prose. 
At  the  same  time  he  increased  the  number  of  monasteries 
and  reformed  the  educational  side  of  these  institutions  by  the 
introduction  of  teachers,  English  and  foreign.  The  story  of 
Grimbald's  visit  to  Oxford  and  of  the  existence  there  of  a 
community  of  scholars  is,  however,  not  supported  by  any 
evidence.  The  legend  was  interpolated  in  an  edition  of  Asser's 
Life  of  Alfred,  based  on  Parker's  text,  which  Camden  published 
in  1602-3.  No  MS.,  or  other  authority,  is  known  to  support 
Camden's  statement.  The  consequence  of  the  educational 
and  literary  activity  of  Alfred's  reign  was  to  transfer  the 
centre  of  learning  from  Northumbria  to  Wessex.  The  monas- 
tic communities  of  Lindisfarne,  Evesham  and  Croyland  had 
fostered  scholarship  in  the  north,  and,  in  the  seventh  century, 
Whitby  had  produced  Caedmon.  In  1674  Benedict  Biscop 
had  built  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter  at  Wearmouth  and,  in  682, 
a  second  house  at  Jarrow,  at  both  of  which  large  libraries  were 
collected.  The  arts  of  glass-making,  gold-work  and  embroidery 
were  introduced  from  the  continent.  Northumbria  had  thus 
become  "the  literary  centre  of  western  Europe,"  producing 
scholars  of  the  type  of  Bede,  the  master  of  the  learning  of  his 
day,  and  Alcuin,  the  scholarly  helper  of  Charles  the  Great. 
"But  with- the  appearance  of  the  Danes  began  the  decline  of 
learning  in  the  north.  So  much  did  scholarship  suffer  in  con- 
sequence of  the  viking  raids  that,  at  the  date  of  Alfred's  acces- 
son,  there  was  no  scholar  even  south  of  the  Thames  who  could 


Asser's  "  Life  of  Alfred  "  99 

read  the  mass-book  in  Latin.  The  revival  of  letters  in  Wessex 
was  the  direct  result  of  the  king's  enthusiasm  and  personal 
efforts,  and  his  educational  aims  recall  irresistibly  the  work  of 
Charles  the  Great. 

The  authorities  for  the  life  of  Alfred  are  many,  but  of 
unequal  value.  His  own  works,  reflecting  as  they  do  his 
personal  character  and  convictions,  furnish  the  most  important  | 
data,  the  Chronicle  and  the  Life  by  Asser  ranking  next  in 
value.  Asser,  a  Welsh  cleric,  was,  in  all  probability,  educated 
at  St.  David's.  He  had  already  been  in  communication  with 
Alfred  regarding  the  defence  of  his  monastery  when  he  was 
summoned  by  the  king  to  assist  him  in  his  educational  schemes. 
According  to  his  own  account,  Asser  arranged  to  stay  with 
Alfred  for  six  months  of  each  year,  spending  the  remaining 
six  in  Wales.  He  became  the  king's  most  intimate  friend  and 
diligently  assisted  him  in  his  study  of  Latin.  He  was  event- 
ually appointed  bishop  of  Sherborne,  and  died  some  ten  years 
after  the  king.  The  authenticity  of  Asser's  book  has  been 
much  disputed.  The  unique  MS.  survives  only  in  charred 
and  illegible  fragments,  but  it  is  clear  from  external  evidence 
that  Parker's  edition  (1574)  contains  large  editorial  alterations 
and  interpolations  from  the  Lives  of  St.  Neots.  Formidable 
evidence  in  support  of  the  genuineness  of  the  original  Asser 
has  been  collected  by  Stevenson  and  others.  The  Welsh 
and  Latin  forms  and  the  scriptural  quotations  point  to  the 
early  part  of  the  tenth  century,  and,  at  the  same  time,  attest 
the  Celtic  nationality  of  the  author.  The  chronology  is  based  on 
a  primitive  version  of  the  Chronicle,  which  the  author  supple- 
ments by  details  which  none  but  an  eye  witness  could  have 
supplied.  The  very  incompleteness  of  the  book  is  an  argument 
against  its  being  a  forgery.  Its  abrupt  beginning  and  conclu- 
sion, and  its  awkward  combination  of  extracts  from  the  Chron- 
icle with  original  matter,  may  have  been  due  to  the  choice 
of  Prankish  models,  such  as  Einhart's  Life  of  Charles  the  Great 
or  Thegan's  Life  of  Litdwig  the  Pious.  Asser's  book  holds 
a  unique  position  as  "the  earliest  biography  of  an  English 
layman."  Florence  of  Worcester  is  valuable  as  illustrating 
the  genuine  text  of  Asser,  since  he  ignores  what  was,  appar- 
ently, interpolated.  The  later  chroniclers,  Simeon  of  Durham 
and  William  of  Malmesbury,  throw  occasional  light  on  incidents 


loo  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

in  the  king's  career,  but,  on  the  whole,  are  responsible  for  the 
growth  of  the  Alfred  legend. 

The  chronological  order  of  Alfred's  works  is  difficult  to 
determine.  Depending,  as  we  do,  mainly  upon  internal 
evidence,  there  is  no  absolute  test  whereby  to  fix  the  priority 
of  one  work  over  another.  Evidence  of  style  is  notoriously 
untrustworthy.  There  are,  however,  a  few  considerations  on 
the  basis  of  which  a  general  arrangement  may  be  attempted, 
though  scarcely  two  critics  are  in  entire  agreement  as  to  the 
final  order.  Of  these  considerations  the  most  important 
is  ability  to  reproduce  in  West  Saxon  prose  the  spirit  of  the 
Latin  original.  A  comparatively  close  translation  is,  in  Alfred's 
case,  a  sign  of  the  prentice  hand ;  his  latest  work  is  marked  by 
great  freedom  of  rendering  and  laige  insertions.  Some  further 
light  is  thrown  on  the  problem  by  the  character  of  the  prefaces 
to  the  various  books.  The  chroniclers  are  of  little  assistance 
in  the  determination  of  the  relative  order. 

The  Handbook  may  safely  be  considered  the  earliest  of 
Alfred's  compilations.  Unfortunately,  no  trace  of  the  book 
is  now  to  be  found,  though  its  existence  is  attested  by  external 
evidence.  The  circumstances  under  which  the  formation  of 
the  Handbook  was  begun  make  it  clear  that  it  was  essentially 
a  common-place  book  of  extracts  from  the  Latin  Bible  and  the 
Fathers.  Asser,  to  w^hom  was  due  the  suggestion  that  a  book 
of  this  nature  might  be  of  service  to  the  king,  describes  it  as  an 
assemblage  of  flosculi,  culled  from  various  sources.  These 
extracts  Alfred  wrote  down  in  Latin,  in  the  first  instance,  and, 
aftenvards,  began  to  render  them  into  English.  The  first 
entries  were  made  on  ii  November,  887,  -fn  venerabili  Martini 
solemnitate.  William  of  Malmesbury^  refers  to  the  common- 
place book,  qucm  patria  lingua  Handboc  (Encheiridion)  i.e., 
manualem  librum  appellavit.  Further,  there  is  in  Florence  of 
Worcester's  Chronicle  a  reference  to  certain  Dicta  regis  Aelfredi, 
whereby  the  Handbook  may  possibly  be  meant.  There  would, 
however,  be  no  justification  for  identifying  the  Dicta  with  the 
Handbook,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  Malmesbury  uses  the 
latter  as  an  authority  for  the  life  of  Aldhelm.  It  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  Alfred  inserted  among  his  notes  an  account  of 
Aldhelm,   with   whose   verses   he   was   probably   acquainted. 

>  Gesta  Regutn  Anglorum,  ii,  §  123. 


Alfred's  "  Pastoral  Care  "  loi 

But  no  importance  whatever  is  to  be  attached  to  Florence  of 
Worcester's  suggestion  that  the  Handbook  was  a  record  of  West 
Saxon  genealogy.  It  is  possible  that  neither  chronicler  is  to 
be  relied  upon  in  this  matter.  The  formation  of  the  Handbook 
was  of  literary  importance  merely :  it  afforded  Alfred  valuable 
literary  training  and  indirectly  stimulated  him  to  try  his  hand 
at  more  extensive  translation. 

The  translation  of  Gregory's  Cur  a  Pastor  alls  may  be  con-~l 
sidered  the  first  of  Alfred's  literary  works,  properly  so  called.  ' 
Grein,   Pauli  and  Bosworth  awarded  first  place  to  Boethins, 
but  internal  evidence  is  altogether  in  favour  of  the  priority 
of  the  Pastoral  Care.     The  decay  of  learning  consequent  upon 
Danish  raids  made  it  imperative  that  an  attempt  should  be 
made  to  revive  the  education  of  the  clergy.     No  work  of  the 
middle  ages  seemed  better  adapted  to  enlighten  the  church 
than  Gregory's  treatise,  designed  to  serve  as  a  spiritual  guide 
for  the  conscience   of  the  priest.     In  Moralia   Gregory   had 
indulged  to  the  full  his  passion  for  allegory;  Cura  Pastoralis^ 
is  less  dominated  by  the  tendency    to  allegorise,  though    it 
contains  some  gross  examples  of  the  practice — the  explanation, 
for  example,  of  Ezekiel's  injunction  to  the  priests  not  to  shave 
their  heads.     But  the  allegorical  method  of  the  church  reformerH 
does  not  altogether  obscure  a  vigorous  and  healthy  tone,  and 
this  in  spite  of  Gregory's  expressed  contempt  for  the  technical 
side   of  letters.     Cura  Pastoralis  appealed   to  Alfred  by  its"" 
spiritual  insight;    consequently  he  began  to  turn  into  West 
Saxon  "the  book  called  in  Latin  Pastoralis  and  in  English 
Hierdeboc, sovaetimes  word  for  word,  sometimes  sense  for  sense." 
In  so  doing  he  availed  himself  of  the  help    of  his   teachers 
Plegmund  and  Asser,  Grimbald  and   John,  and  as  he  under- 
stood their  explanations  he  rendered  the  matter  into  English. 

The  preface  which  gives  this  particular  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  Pastoral  Care  is  of  great  importance  in  another 
respect.  An  earlier  passage  makes  it  clear  that  the  present 
was  only  the  first  of  a  series  of  books  which  the  king  intended 
to  translate,  in  order  that  ultimately  all  the  free-bom  youths 
of  England,  who  had  the  necessary  leisure,  might  be  instructed 
in  their  own  tongue.  The  preface  to  the  Pastoral  Care  is  thus 
a  preface  to  the  whole  series  of  translations.  At  the  same  time 
it  ranks  among  the  most  important  of  Alfred's  original  contri- 


I02  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

butions  to  literature.  It  gives  an  account  of  the  decay  of  learn- 
ing in  Britain,  and  sets  forth  the  king's  determination  to  reform 
the  schools  of  Wessex.  It  defends  the  use  of  the  vernacular  by 
showing  how  the  Old  Testament  was  written  first  in  Hebrew, 
then  translated  into  Greek  and  subsequently  into  Latin,  and 
how  all  other  Christian  nations  had  turned  some  portion  of 
ancient  literature  into  their  own  tongue.  From  a  literary  point 
of  view,  the  preface  is  the  first  important  piece  of  prose  in 
English;  linguisticall}^  it  is,  on  account  of  its  age,  of  unique 
value.  A  passage  in  alliterative  verse,  containing  a  glowing 
tribute  to  Gregory,  "Christ's  warrior,  the  Pope  of  Rome," 
forms  a  kind  of  second  preface.  It  closes  with  a  reference 
to  the  despatch  of  a  copy  to  each  bishop  in  the  land. 

The  style  of  the  Pastoral  Care  has  just  those  characteristics 
which  might  have  been  expected  in  an  early  work.  Alfred's 
conception  of  the  translator's  province  never  limited  him  to  a 
very  close  rendering ;  but,  compared  with  his  later  work,  there 
are  signs  of  restraint  in  this  effort  that  suggest  inexperience. 
The  double  versions  and  the  anacolutha  in  the  text  have  given 
rise  to  the  ingenious  suggestion  that  the  translation  was  dic- 
tated. A  close  comparison  of  the  Latin  text  and  the  West 
Saxon  version  throws  further  light  on  the  king's  methods. 
His  English  audience  is  always  kept  in  view,  and,  for  their 
benefit,  he  inserts  brief  explanatory  notes.  Thus,  he  interprets 
"manna"  as  "the  sweet  meat  which  came  down  from  heaven," 
"shittim  wood"  as  "the  tree  which  never  decays,"  "purple" 
as  "the  royal  robe."  Occasionally  he  Teutonises  the  terms  of 
the  Latin  original  by  identifying  Hebrew  institutions  and 
social  grades  with  their  nearest  analogues  in  West  Saxon  civil- 
isation. Plateis  he  renders  by  "  herestraetum. "  David  is 
described  as  a  "salm-sceop,"  Uriah  as  a  "thegn."  Blunders 
are  naturally  to  be  met  with,  as,  for  example,  in  the  derivation 
of  sacerdotes — "in  English  cleansers  because  they  are  to  act  as 
guides  of  believers  and  govern  them."  Compared  with  later 
translations,  Alfred's  Pa^/oraZ  Care  is  very  close  to  the  original. 
The  style  is  somewhat  Latinised  and  abounds  in  pleonasms 
and  repetition,  and  the  translation  is  remarkable  for  the  num- 
ber of  oi7ta$  Xeyojueva  it  contains.  The  copy  preserved  in 
the  Bodleian  is  interesting  as  containing  the  name  of  Werferth, 
and  it  is  the  actual  copy  destined  for  the  Worcester  see. 


Alfred's  "Orosius"  ^03 

The  relative  positions  of  Orosius  and  Bede  are  difficult 
to  determine.  For  a  long  period  the  prior  position  ^vas 
assigned  to  Orosius,  but,  latterly,  there  has  been  a  tendency 
to  reverse  the  order.  The  argument  based  on  closeness  of 
translation  may,  in  this  case,  be  fallacious,  not  only  from  the  fact 
that  the  Latin  of  Orosius  presents  more  difficulties  than  that  of 
Bede,  but  because,  in  the  latter  case,  Alfred  would  have  been 
far  less  justified  in  tampering  with  his  original.  Bede's  work 
ranked,  in  Alfred's  day,  as  a  standard  history  of  the  early 
English  church;  it  was  a  recognised  classic.  Much  of  Orosius, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  obviously  unsuitable  for  English 
readers  unversed  in  the  outlines  of  classical  history.  The 
comparative  closeness  of  the  translation  of  Bede  does  not, 
therefore,  necessarily  imply  early  work.  Plummer  has  pointed 
out  that  the  account  of  Caesar's  invasions  was  omitted  in  the 
first  recension  of  Bede — a  fact  which  can  only  be  understood 
by  assuming  that  Alfred  had  already  treated  these  events  in 
detail  in  Orosius. 

The  Historia  adversus  Paganos  of  Paulus  Orosius,  a  Spanish 
ecclesiastic,  dates  from  the  fifth  century  and  was  looked  upon 
as  a  standard  text-book  of  universal  history.  Orosius,  as  a 
disciple  of  Augustine,  had  already  given  expression  to  anti- 
Pelagian  views  in  an  earlier  work.  His  later  book,  likewise 
due  to  the  inspiration  of  Augustine,  ^  was  an  attempt  to  expound 
the  thesis  that  the  decline  of  the  Roman  empire  was  due  to 
other  causes  than  the  rise  of  Christianity  and  the  neglect  of 
pagan  deities. 

i\lfred's  interest  in  the  work  of  Orosius  lay  chiefly  on  the 
historical  and  geographical  sides,  though  he  did  not  neglect 
to  draw  the  moral.  He  aimed  at  giving  to  the  English  peo- 
ple a  compendium  of  universal  history  and  geography,  hand- 
ling his  original  with  great  freedom,  introducing  alterations 
and  additions,  omitting  much  superfluous  detail  and  making 
original  contributions  of  great  value.  The  account'  of  the 
geography  of  Gennania  is  an  interpolation  of  the  greatest 
importance  as  a  historical  document.  Further,  the  accounts 
of  the  celebrated  voyages  of  Ohthere  and  Wulfstan  inserted 
in  the  volume  were  taken  down  from  hearsay.  The  Norwegian 
Ohthere  had  voyaged  furthest  north  of  all  his  contemporaries, 
1  Cf.  De  Civ.  Dei,  iii. 


I04  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

reaching  a  latitude  of  about  71°  15'.  Passing  raund  the  north 
of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula,  he  afterwards  explored  the 
White  Sea.  Not  till  1 5 5 3  was  this  feat  eclipsed,  by  Willoughby . 
Ohthere  afterwards  made  a  voyage  south,  from  Halgoland 
to  Haddeby  in  the  Baltic.  From  this  point  Wulstan  set  out 
to  explore  the  great  sea,  which  Ohthere  had  described  as  run- 
ning for  many  miles  into  the  land.  For  a  time  he  had  Wend- 
land  on  his  starboard  and  the  Danish  islands  on  his  port  side. 
Continuing  past  the  Swedish  provinces  of  Bleking  and  Smaland, 
he  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Vistula.  He  entered  the  Frische 
Haff  and  sailed  up  the  Elbing  to  Truso,  having  accomplished 
the  voyage  in  seven  days.  On  their  return  both  voyagers 
recounted  their  adventures  to  Alfred,  who  gave  them  a  sym- 
pathetic hearing.  The  narrative  of  Ohthere  must  have  had 
particular  interest  for  him,  for  the  spirit  of  discovery  which 
animated  the  Non\^egian  sailor  was  akin  to  that  felt  by  the 
West  Saxon  king.  Alfred  had  already  formed  plans  for  the 
development  of  a  navy,  and  would  readily  recognise  the  relation 
between  the  spirit  of  adventure  and  the  maintenance  of  sea- 
power.  Geographical  conditions  were  largely  responsible  for 
the  unrest  of  the  Scandinavians.  The  interior  of  Sweden 
was  filled  with  dense  pine  forests  and  Norway  was,  for  the 
most  part,  a  barren  moor.  Hence  expeditions,  piratical  or 
otherwise,  and  the  growth  of  that  love  for  the  sea  which  is 
reflected  in  the  northern  sagas.  "He  alone,"  says  the  Yng- 
linga  Saga,  "had  full  right  to  the  name  of  sea-king,  who  never 
slept  under  sooty  beam  and  never  drank  at  chimney  comer." 
The  narrative  of  Ohthere's  voyage  holds  a  unique  position 
as  the  first  attempt  to  give  expression  to  the  spirit  of  discovery. 
It  is,  besides,  good  literature,  and  finds  an  honourable  place  in 
Hakluyt's  great  collection  of  voyages. 

Alfred  was  too  wise  to  burden  his  book  with  all  the  geo- 
graphical detail  given  by  Orosius.  He  confined  himself  to  the 
essentials  of  general  geography,  omitting  the  descriptions  of 
northeast  Africa  and  of  central  Asia  and  abbreviating  other  pas- 
sages. The  mistakes  which  crept  into  his  version  are  to  be  as- 
cribed either  to  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the  district  described 
or  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the  somewhat  difficult  Latin  of 
Orosius.  The  historical  portion  of  the  book  is  less  original 
than  the  geographical.     Alfred  omitted  a  great  deal,  particu- 


Alfred's  "Orosius"  105 

larly  in  the  sections  dealing  with  classical  mythology.  The 
stories  of  Philomela,  Tantalus  and  Caligula  had  little  to  com- 
mend them,  and  were  not  inserted  in  the  translation.  Many 
of  the  moralisings  of  Orosius  were  left  out,  though  a  number 
were  retained  in  a  paraphrased  form.  Curiously  enough,  some 
of  the  passages  definitely  ascribed  by  Alfred  to  Orosius  are 
not  to  be  traced  in  the  original.  It  is  possible  that,  in  such 
cases,  Alfred  availed  himself  of  materials  as  yet  unknown 
to  us.  A  more  questionable  proceeding  is  the  omission  of 
details  prejudicial  to  the  reputation  of  Germanic  tribes.  The 
alterations  and  additions  in  the  historical  section  are  decid- 
edly interesting.  There  are  the  usual  misunderstandings — 
the  identification  of  Theseus  with  the  victor  of  Marathon,  of 
Carthage  with  Cordova,  and  the  fusion  of  the  consuls  Lepidus 
and  Mucius  into  one  under  the  title  of  Lepidus  Mutius.  Wher- 
ever possible  the  king  acts  as  interpreter,  substituting,  for 
example,  English  equivalents  for  the  Latin  names  of  British 
towns  and  English  names  of  measures  for  Latin.  The  descrip- 
tion given  by  Orosius  of  the  appearances  of  Commodus  in 
the  arena  is  reduced  to  the  simple  statement  that  the  emperor 
was  accustomed  to  fight  duels.  Alfred's  imagination  plays 
around  the  details  of  the  plague  of  frogs  in  Egypt — "  No  meat 
could  be  prepared  without  there  being  as  large  a  quantity 
of  reptiles  as  of  meat  in  the  vessel  before  it  could  be  dressed." 
Cleopatra  is  described  as  placing  the  adder  against  her  ami 
because  she  thought  it  would  cause  less  pain  there.  Interest- 
ing accounts  are  inserted  of  a  Roman  triumph  and  of  the 
temple  of  Janus.  A  side  glimpse  is  often  to  be  had  of  the 
king's  opinions,  religious  or  otherwise.  He  enlarges  on  Scipio's 
love  for  the  fatherland,  concluding,  "  He  compelled  them  to 
swear  that  they  would  all  together  either  live  or  die  in  their  na- 
tive land."  His  admiration  is  likewise  moved  by  the  courage 
of  Regulus,  to  whom  he  devotes  considerable  space.  Orosius 
is  thus  of  great  value  for  the  light  it  throws  on  Alfred's  charac- 
ter. He  is  shown  to  have  been  a  skilful  geographer  and  an 
interested,  if  not  a  scholarly,  student  of  history.  His  practi- 
cal purpose  is  clearly  apparent.  Ever^'Avhere  in  dealing  with 
history  he  endeavours  to  bring  the  historical  fact  into  vital 
relation  with  current  affairs.  The  military  achievements  of 
Greeks  and  Romans  remind  him  of  wars  in  which  he  had 


I06  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

himself  been  engaged,  and  his  explanations  of  manceuvres  are 
generally  based  on  his  own  experience.  Though  the  hand 
of  Alfred  is  very  apparent  in  the  pages  of  Orosius,  there  is 
no  good  external  authority  for  the  authorship.  The  first  to 
associate  his  name  with  this  translation  was  William  of 
Malmesbury.  ^ 

The  translation  of  Bede's  Historia  Ecclesiastica  may  be  con- 
sidered next.  The  original  is  much  less  freely  rendered  than 
is  the  case  with  Orosius — a  fact  which  may  have  been  due  to 
the  authoritative  position  occupied  by  Bede's  book.  The 
external  testimony  of  Alfred's  authorship  is  fairly  trustworthy. 
In  his  Homily  on  St.  Gregory  Aelfric  refers  to  the  Historia 
Anglorum,  "which  Alfred  translated  out  of  Latin  into  Eng- 
lish," and  there  is  further  evidence  in  the  Cambridge  MS., 
on  the  first  leaf  of  which  is  written.  Historians  quondam  fecit 
me  Beda  latinum,  Aelfred  rex  Saxo  transtulit  ille  pius.  On  the 
ground  of  certain  Mercian  characteristics  in  the  text,  however, 
Miller  ventures  to  doubt  the  Alfredian  authorship,  and  is  led 
by  the  fact  of  certain  omissions  to  fix  the  locality  of  the  original 
MS.  at  Lichfield.  On  the  other  hand,  Schipper  holds  to  the 
orthodox  view  and  considers  the  arguments  based  on  dialect 
to  be  unproven.  The  omissions  in  Alfred's  Bede  are  very 
considerable,  and  no  attempt  is  made  to  supplement  the  orig- 
inal with  southern  annals.  No  account  is  given  of  the  famous 
ecclesiastical  controversy  which  took  place  at  Whitby — a  fact 
which  seems  to  Miller  to  confirm  his  view  that  the  translator 
was  not  a  West  Saxon  but  a  Mercian,  keenly  aware  of  Scotch 
susceptibilities.  Bede's  accounts  of  the  great  figures  of  the 
early  churches  are  retained,  though  the  story  of  Adamnan  is 
omitted.  In  the  interest  of  his  narrative  Alfred  omits  such 
documents  as  letters  from  popes  and  bishops,  retaining  only 
Gregory's  first  letter  to  the  monks,  and  this  in  oratio  ohliqua. 
The  finest  passage  in  the  English  version  is  the  account  of 
Caedmon,  an  excellent  piece  of  early  prose,  and  Caedmon's 
hymn  is  inserted  in  a  AVest  Saxon  form,  of  which  the  original 
is  to  be  found  only  in  the  More  MS.  of  Bede's  History.  The 
style  is  frequently  marred  by  over-literalness.  Latin  cons-^'ic- 
tions  are  constantly  introduced  in  an  altogether  un-English 
fashion,   and  words  are  used  in  an  un-English  sense  as  equiva- 

•  Gesta  Rcgum  Anglorum,  ii,  §  123. 


Old  English  Codes  of  Law  107 

lents  for  Latin  terms.  A  peculiarity  of  the  style  is  the  employ- 
ment of  two  English  terms  to  represent  a  single  term  in  the 
original.  On  the  whole,  the  translation  cannot  rank  very 
high  among  Alfred's  works,  even  if  it  be  rightly  attributed 
to  him. 

There  is  no  external  evidence  to  enable  us  to  decide  the 
date  of  Alfred's  code  of  laws.  The  historical  introduction, 
based  on  the  Vulgate,  shows  considerable  independence  and 
cannot  be  dated  very  early.  The  composition  of  the  code 
may  be  assigned,  provisionally,  to  the  close  of  Alfred's  first 
translation  period  (c.  893),  without,  however,  attaching 
much  importance  to  Malmesbury's  statement  that  it  was 
undertaken  "  amid  the  clash  of  arms."  ^  The  code  is  of  a  some- 
what composite  character,  and  has  usually  been  arranged  in 
three  sections — the  introduction,  the  laws  of  Alfred  proper 
and  the  laws  of  Ine.  In  his  monograph  entitled  The  Legal  Code 
of  Alfred  the  Great,  Turk  points  out  that  this  arrangement  is 
not  justified  by  the  MSS.  The  introduction  consists  properly 
of  two  parts — the  historical  introduction  based  on  the  Mosaic 
law  and  the  introduction  proper.  The  insertions  from  the 
Mosaic  law  give  a  universal  character  to  Alfred's  code.  They 
are  rendered  somewhat  freely,  large  portions  of  the  Latin 
text  being  omitted  and  other  portions  altered.  One  of  the 
Mosaic  laws  ran  as  follows:  "  If  a  man  shall  deliver  unto  his 
neighbour  money  or  stuff  to  keep,  and  it  be  stolen  out  of  the 
man's  house,  if  the  thief  be  found,  he  shall  pay  double.  If  the 
thief  be  not  found,  then  the  master  of  the  house  shall  come 
near  unto  God  (or  the  judges) ,  to  see  whether  he  have  not  put 
his  hand  unto  his  neighbour's  goods."  ^  This  passage  Alfred 
renders  as  follows:  "If  any  one  entrust  his  property  to  his 
friend:  if  he  shall  steal  it,  let  him  pay  double;  if  he  know  not 
who  has  stolen  it,  let  him  excuse  himself."  Another  Mosaic 
law — "  If  men  contend,  and  one  smiteth  the  other  with  a  stone 
or  w^ith  his  fist,  and  he  die  not,  but  keep  his  bed :  if  he  rise  again, 
and  walk  abroad  upon  his  staff,  then  shall  he  that  smote  him 
be  quit;  only  he  shall  pay  for  the  loss  of  his  time,  and  shall 
cause  him  to  be  thoroughly  healed"^ — has  been  much  altered 
in  Alfred's  version:     "  If  a  man  strike  his  neighbour  with  a 

»  Gesta  Regtmt  Anglorum,  i,  §  129. 

2  Ex.  xxii,  7,  8.  3  Ex.  xxi,   18,   19. 


io8  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

stone  or  with  his  fist  and  he  may  nevertheless  go  about  with  a 
staff,  let  him  provide  him  a  leech  and  do  his  work  during  the 
time  that  he  is  not  able."  The  law  concerning  the  first-born 
— "the  first-bom  of  thy  sons  shalt  thou  give  unto  me"^ — 
naturally  finds  no  place  in  the  West  Saxon  code.  Another 
alteration  is  the  substitution  of  two  oxen  for  five  in  the 
Mosaic  ordinance,  "  If  a  man  shall  steal  an  ox,  or  a  sheep,  and 
kill  it,  or  sell  it,  he  shall  pay  five  oxen  for  an  ox,  and  four  sheep 
for  a  sheep. "2  A  remarkable  addition,  intended  to  counter- 
act the  severity  of  the  Mosaic  code  as  a  whole,  is  that  of  the 
apostolic  letter,  at  the  close  of  which  Alfred  continues  in 
his  own  words — "  From  this  one  law  a  man  may  learn  how 
we  ought  to  judge  aright.  He  needs  no  other  law-books ;  let 
him  bethink  him  that  he  do  not  to  another  what  he  would 
not  have  done  to  himself." 

Alfred's  code  is,  as  we  have  indicated,  of  a  composite 
character.  He  links  himself  with  the  church  not  only  by  his 
insertions  from  the  Mosaic  code  but  by  his  reference  to  "the 
many  synods  throughout  the  world  and  throughout  England, 
after  they  had  received  the  faith  of  Christ,  of  holy  bishops 
and  other  distinguished  counsellors."  Some  of  the  synodical 
laws  may  have  been  embodied  in  the  West  Saxon  code.  Fur- 
ther we  find  alongside  Alfred's  own  laws  those  of  Ine,  of 
Offa  and  of  Aethelbriht.  The  Mercian  laws  ascribed  to  Offa 
are  unfortunately  lost,  but  the  Kentish  laws  of  Aethelbriht, 
the  earliest  "dooms"  we  have,  though  in  a  late  copy,  can  be 
traced  in  Alfred's  code,  where  they  have  been  inserted  in  a  re- 
vised form.  Bede  refers  to  the  original  Kentish  laws  as  "  written 
in  English  and  still  preserved.  Among  which  the  king  in  the 
first  place  set  down  what  satisfaction  should  be  given  by  those 
who  should  steal  anything  belonging  to  the  church,  the  bishop 
and  the  other  clergy"  (ii,  5).  The  prominence  given  to  the 
church  seems  to  have  appealed  forcibly  to  the  historian.  Aethel- 
briht's  code  is  mainly  taken  up  with  the  penalties  payable  for  the 
infliction  of  personal  injuries.  The  compensation  for  the  loss 
of  an  ear  is  fixed,  tariff-like,  at  65.,  of  an  eye  at  505.,  of  a  nose  at 
95.  "  If  one  man  strike  another  with  the  fist  on  the  nose — 3s." 
Alfred  carefully  revised  each  of  the  penalties  before  inserting 
Aethelbriht' s  code  in  his  own.     The  laws  of  Ine  date  back 

«  Ex.  xxii,  29.  2  Ex.  xxii,  i. 


"  De  Consolatione  Philosophiae  "         109 

to  the  eighth  century  and  are  the  earhcst  of  West  Saxon 
laws.  They  are  more  comprehensive  in  character  than  the 
laws  of  Kent,  but  seem  by  Alfred's  date  to  have  received 
large  accretions.  Alfred  adopted  the  developed  code  of  Ine 
apparently  without  subjecting  it  to  revision.  But  he  connects 
his  own  particular  code  with  the  earlier  one  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  the  one  supplementary  to  the  other.  One  of  Ine's  laws 
as  it  appears  in  Alfred's  text  is  worth  quoting: 

If  a  man  burn  a  tree  in  a  wood  and  it  is  made  clear  who  did  it, 
let  him  pay  the  full  penalty  of  605.,  because  fire  is  a  thief.  If  a 
man  fell  many  trees  in  a  wood,  and  it  is  found  out,  let  him  pay  for 
three  trees,  each  with  305.  He  need  not  pay  for  more,  however 
many  they  be,  because  the  axe  is  an  informer  and  not  a  thief. 

It  is  possible  that  some  years  elapsed  before  Alfred  began 
his  translations  of  Boethius's  De  Consolatione  Philosophiae. 
Assuming  that  his  energies  had  been  fully  employed  during  the 
period  from  888  to  893  with  his  early  work,  he  could  have  had 
little  leisure  for  any  new  undertaking  before  the  year  897. 
The  freedom  with  which  the  whole  of  this  new  task  is  carried  out 
points  to  a  late  period  and  a  mature  method.  Boethius's  book 
ranked  among  the  most  characteristic  products  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  Its  influence  on  later  literature  was  immense,  and  is 
scarcely  to  be  estimated  by  the  number  of  translations,  nu- 
merous though  they  were.  It  was  done  into  English,  after 
Alfred's  time,  by  Chaucer  and  Elizabeth,  into  German  by 
Notker,  into  French  by  Jean  de  Meun.  An  early  metrical 
version  in  Provencal  also  exists.  The  influence  of  Boethius 
has  been  traced  in  Beowulf;  it  permeates  Dante  and  Chaucer. 
The  closing  words  of  the  Paradiso — "Already  my  desire  and 
will  were  rolled,  even  as  a  wheel  that  moveth  equally,  by  the 
love  that  moves  the  sun  and  the  other  stars" — owe  their  origin 
to  the  Consolation  of  Philosophy.  The  book  was  written 
while  the  author  was  under  sentence  of  death  after  having 
fallen  into  disfavour  with  the  Ostrogothic  king  Theodric. 
It  is  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  Boethius  and  Philosophy, 
wherein  are  set  forth  the  consolations  associated  with  the 
contemplative  state  of  mind.     The  famous  dissertation  upon 


no  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

fate  and  providence  is  conducted  with  considerable  subtlety  ; 
but  the  atmosphere  of  the  book  is  rehgious  rather  than  philo- 
sophical, and  it  is  signally  free  from  the  technicalities  of  the 
schools.  Boethius  harks  back  to  the  early  Greek  standpoint 
of  Plato,  from  whom  he  derives  his  central  doctrine  of  submis- 
siveness.  The  finite  is  to  be  realised  only  in  the  absolute, 
which  is  identical  with  love,  and  love  is  realised  by  faith. 
The  Middle  Ages,  with  their  vivid  sense  of  an  overruling  fate, 
found  in  Boethius  an  interpretation  of  life  closely  akin  to 
the  spirit  of  Christianity.  The  Consolation  of  Philosophy 
stands,  by  its  note  of  fatalism  and  its  affinities  with  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  humility,  midway  between  the  heathen  philoso- 
phy of  Seneca  and  the  later  Christian  philosophy  of  consolation 
represented  by  Thomas  a  Kempis.  Alfred's  religious  outlook 
had  much  in  common  with  the  gentle  philosophy  of  "the  last 
of  the  Romans,"  and  the  translation  afforded  him  considerable 
opportunity  for  self-expression.  In  some  passages  the  king 
identifies  himself  with  the  philosopher  and  enlarges  on  meta- 
physical themes.  In  others,  as  in  the  famous  seventeenth  chap- 
ter, he  reflects  on  such  problems  as  his  duty  toward  the  state : 

Thou  knowest,  Reason,  that  the  greed  and  grandeur  of  this 
temporal  power  have  never  pleased  me  much,  nor  have  I  longed 
overmuch  for  this  earthly  kingdom :  but  I  desired  tools  and  material 
for  the  work  which  I  was  ordered  to  work,  in  order  that  I  might 
virtuously  and  fittingly  control  the  power  entrusted  to  me. 

The  rendering  of  Boethius  is  never  close,  and  the  additions 
give  a  unique  character  to  the  work.  The  spirit  of  Alfred's 
version  is  naturally  more  in  keeping  with  Christianity  than 
is  the  Neo-Platonic  doctrine  of  Boethius.  There  is  definite 
mention  of  God  and  Christ  where  Boethius  speaks  of  "the 
good,"  or  "love,"  or  "the  true  way,"  or  "divine  reason"; 
again,  the  English  version  substitutes  "angels"  for  "divine, 
substance."  The  minor  additions  are  often  interesting.  The 
lynx  is  "  an  animal  that  can  see  through  anything — trees  or  even 
stones" ;  the  Parcae  are  "the  cruel  goddesses  who  preside  over 
the  fates  of  every  man  " ;  Orpheus  is  "  an  excellent  good  harper." 
Alfred's  interest  in  geography  induced  him  to  supply  the  infor- 
mation that  ultima  Thule  is  situated  "  in  the  north-west  of  this 
earth,"  and  Mount  Etna  in  "the  island  of  Sicily."     But  it  is  in 


Alfred's  Rendering  of  Boethius  ^  ^  i 

the  expanded  passages  that  the  chief  value  of  the  book  consists. 
The  preface  and  chapter  i,  with  its  interesting  account  of  the 
Latin  author,  are  wholly  original.  Chapter  xvii,  again,  is 
original,  save  for  a  few  lines.  Details  concerning  Busiris, 
Regulus  and  Seneca  are  inserted,  which  are  only  partially 
translated,  and  the  account  of  Cicero  is  a  noteworthy  addition. 
It  was  a  happy  inspiration  that  led  Alfred  to  render  the  Latin 
Ubi  nunc  fidelis  ossa  Fabricii  manent  f — in  the  spirit  of  a  Teu- 
ton attached  to  his  national  legends — "  Where  are  the  bones 
of  Weland?"  He  is  much  interested  in  astrology,  and  re- 
fers more  than  once  to  "the  cold  star,"  Saturn.  The  re- 
flective passages  afford  most  instructive  glimpses  into  the 
workings  of  the  king's  mind.  They  are  permeated  by  deep 
religious  fervour:  "It  is,"  he  writes,  "the  expectation  and 
fancy  of  fools  that  power  and  wealth  are  the  highest  good ; 
but  really  is  quite  othen\4se."  He  reflects  on  the  vanity  of 
earthly  ambition:  "O  glory  of  this  world,  why  do  men  falsely 
call  thee  glory,  w^hen  thou  art  not  so?"  The  literary  beauty 
of  the  similes  employed  by  Alfred  has  been  often  noted.  Pros- 
perity passes  away  "like  a  gust  of  wdnd" ;  blessings  flow  from 
the  source  of  all  goodness  "like  waters  from  the  sea."  God  is 
likened  to  a  steersman  who  perceives  the  oncoming  of  a  storm 
and  makes  preparations  against  it.  In  an  important  article, 
Schepss  raised  the  question  as  to  how  far  Alfred's  interpola- 
tions were  based  on  Latin  commentaries  similar  to  that  of 
Froumond,  or  upon  scholia  such  as  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Munich  MS.  He  pointed  out  that,  in  expanding  Boethius's 
account  of  the  giants,  who  incurred  the  wrath  of  Jupiter  by 
assailing  heaven,  Alfred  introduced  Nimrod  and  the  Tower 
of  Babel.  The  hint  for  this  seems  to  have  been  derived 
from    the    Munich     MS.      The    famous    simile    of    the    egg — • 

Thou,  glorious  king  of  hosts,  through  strong  might  wonderfully 
didst  establish  the  earth  so  firmly  that  she  inclineth  not  on  any 
side  nor  may  she  sink  hither  and  thither  any  more  than  she  ever 
did.  Yet  nothing  earthly  sustains  her,  it  is  equally  easy  for  this 
world  to  fall  upwards  or  downwards:  likest  to  that  which  happens 
in  an  egg,  the  yolk  is  in  the  midst  yet  glideth  freely  about  the  egg. 
So  stands  the  world  fixed  in  its  place,  while  the  streams,  the  play 
of  waters,  the  sky  and  the  stars  and  the  shining  shell  move  about 
day  by  day  as  they  did  long  ago — 


112  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

and  the  other  simile,  of  the  wheel,  in  which  God  is  compared 
to  the  fixed  axle  round  which  the  felly  and  spokes  turn,  are 
not  wholly  original  but,  together  with  many  other  passages, 
show  the  influence  of  the  scholia.  It  is  highly  probable  that 
much  in  Alfred's  work  which  has  hitherto  been  looked  upon  as 
wholly  original  will  be  found  to  have  been  based  upon  similar 
sources.  The  preface,  on  the  genuineness  of  which  some  doubt 
has  been  thrown,  informs  us  that  Alfred  was  the  translator  of 
the  book  and  that  he  rendered  his  original  "sometimes  word 
for  word,  sometimes  sense  for  sense,  as  best  he  could  amid  the 
manifold  occupations  of  his  kingdom."  This  description  of  the 
king's  method  is  altogether  in  keeping  with  that  prefixed  to  the 
Pastoral  Care.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that,  according  to  William 
of  Malmesbury,^  Asser  had  previously  glossed  the  Latin  for  the 
king's  benefit.  In  view  of  this  statement  the  present  transla- 
tion was,  for  a  long  time,  considered  to  have  been  the  first  of 
Alfred's  undertakings.  He  may  have  intended  to  begin  Boe- 
thius  at  an  early  period,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  translation 
as  we  now  have  it  is  a  late  piece  of  work.  The  language  has 
given  rise  to  interesting  problems.  The  two  chief  MSS.,  the 
Bodleian  and  the  Cottonian,  contain,  according  to  Sievers,  a 
large  number  of  Kentisms.  These  are  possibly  due  to  a  scribe 
of  Kentish  origin,  the  whole  case  being  parallel  to  that  of  Bede. 
Much  discussion  has  arisen  with  regard  to  the  authorship 
of  the  alliterative  metres  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  British 
Museum.  MS.  of  Boethius  (Otho  A.  6).  The  younger  MS.  at 
Oxford  contains  a  prose  version  of  these  metres.  It  is  generally 
agreed  that  the  verse  renderings  are  based,  not  on  the  Latin 
directly,  but  on  a  West  Saxon  prose  version.  In  the  British 
Museum  MS.  the  text  is  preceded  by  two  prefaces,  one  of 
which  is  in  alliterative  verse ;  the  other,  in  prose,  attributes  the 
metres  to  Alfred.  Thomas  Wright  was  the  first  to  doubt 
the  king's  authorship  of  the  metres,  but  his  arguments  have 
been  largely  disproved.  Leicht  was  able  to  bring  forward  a 
more  formidable  case.  While  admitting  the  weakness  of 
Wright's  argument,  he  contended  that  the  case  for  Alfred's 
authorship  rests  on  an  unsound  basis.  He  agreed  with  Ten 
Brink  in  the  opinion  that  the  preface  ascribing  the  verses  to 
Alfred  is  not  authentic,  and  maintained  that  the  king,  in  at- 

1  Gesta  Regum  Anglorum,  ii,  ?,  122. 


Augustine's  "  Soliloquies  "  113 

tempting  to  render  his  own  prose  into  verse,  would  scarcely 
have  clung  so  closely  to  his  model  as  is  the  case.  On  the  other 
hand,  Hartmann  has  pointed  out  that  Alfred's  skill  in  prose 
argues  no  facility  in  verse-making.  The  two  poems  in  Cura 
Pastoralis  have  no  more  distinction  than  those  in  the  British 
Museum  MS.  Again,  there  are  certain  expressions  in  this  AIS., 
not  to  be  found  in  the  Oxford  type,  which  definitely  refer  to 
passages  in  the  latter.  The  author  of  the  verses  appears  to 
identify  himself  with  the  author  of  the  prose  translation.  On 
the  whole,  the  question  must  be  left  open,  though  it  would  seem 
that  it  rests  with  those  who  deny  the  king's  authorship  to 
establish  their  case.  It  is  known  that  Alfred  was  an  enthusiast 
in  regard  to  Old  English  verse,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
he  was  well  acquainted  with  the  verses  of  his  kinsman,  Aid- 
helm.  A  spirit  of  emulation  may  have  led  him  to  try  his 
hand  at  versification. 

The  West  Saxon  version  of  Augustine's  Soliloquia  stands 
last  in  order  of  Alfred's  translations,  and  considerable  doubt 
has  been  expressed  as  to  its  genuineness.  Pauli,  on  the  ground 
that  Alfred's  name  does  not  occur  in  the  preface,  rejects  it 
altogether,  and  finds  justification  in  the  fact  that  the  language 
is  an  impure  form  of  West  Saxon.  Wiilker,  who  formerly 
identified  the  Soliloquies  with  the  Handbook,  considers  the 
book  to  be  genuine.  He  points  out  that  the  preface  in  its 
present  form  is  mutilated  and  that  the  twelfth  century  MS. 
is  too  late  to  afford  any  evidence  based  on  style.  Judging 
from  the  nature  of  the  references  to  holy  orders,  the  transla- 
tion appears  to  have  been  the  work  of  a  layman  rather  than 
a  monk,  and  the  closing  words,  whether  genuine  or  not,  at- 
tribute it  to  Alfred.  The  vocabulary  of  the  Soliloquies  has 
much  in  common  with  that  of  Alfred's  Boethius,  and  there 
are  close  resemblances  between  the  two  works  in  thought  and 
style,  *  Some  of  the  original  passages  seem  to  have  been  directly 
based  upon  translated  portions  of  Boethius,  and  original 
passages  in  both  works  sometimes  correspond  closely.  Alfred 
was  attracted  to  Augustine  by  the  nature  of  his  theme.  The 
Latin  work  is  a  treatise  on  God  and  the  soul,  in  which  much 
space  is  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  immortality.  The  transla- 
tion is  undertaken  quite  in  accordance  with  Alfred's  customary 
methods.     He  renders  the  first  book  somewhat  closely,  but 


1 14  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

paraphrases  the  sense  and  makes  a  few  additions,  indulging 
his  taste  for  simile  in  a  comparison  between  the  soul  at  rest 
in  God  and  a  ship  at  anchor,  and  discoursing  at  length  on  the 
changes  that  take  place  in  nature,  on  the  likeness  between  God 
and  the  sun  and  on  the  relation  between  king  and  subject. 
Book  II  he  renders  very  freely.  He  discusses  the  problem  of 
immortality  from  an  independent  standpoint:  "Believe  thine 
own  reason  and  believe  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  believe  all 
His  saints  for  they  were  truthful  witnesses,  and  believe  thine 
own  soul  which  ever  declares  through  reason  that  she  is  in 
thee."  Book  iii  is  based  on  another  source,  Augustine's  De 
Videndo  Deo,  supplemented  by  passages  from  Augustine's  De 
Civitate  Dei,  Gregory's  Morals  and  Dialogues  and  Jerome's 
Commentary  on  Luke.  The  dialogue  form  is  continued  for 
some  time,  though  the  sources  do  not  justify  such  an  arrange- 
ment. The  spirit  of  the  whole  translation  is  deeply  religious. 
It  is  a  logical  discussion  of  the  nature  and  future  of  the  soul,  in 
which  Augustine's  dialectics  are  rejected  in  favour  of  common- 
sense  reasoning.  There  is  a  natural  connection  between  the 
Soliloquies  and  Boethius,  since  its  central  theme  had  already 
been  suggested  in  the  closing  pages  of  the  latter.  It  has 
already  been  shown  that  the  preface  to  the  Pastoral  Care  is  in 
the  nature  of  a  general  introduction  to  Alfred's  translated 
works;  the  preface  to  the  Soliloquies  may  be  considered  an 
epilogue — the  king's  farewell  to  literature — 

I  gathered  me  poles  and  props  and  bars  and  handles  for  each  of 
the  tools  which  I  could  handle,  and  bough  timbers  and  bolt  timbers 
for  each  of  the  tasks  which  I  was  capable  of  undertaking,  the  fairest 
wood,  as  far  as  I  could  bear  it  away.  I  came  not  home  with  a  great 
burden,  since  it  pleased  me  not  to  bring  all  the  wood  home,  even  if 
I  could  have  carried  it.  On  each  tree  I  saw  something  which  I 
needed  at  home.  Therefore,  I  advise  every  man  who  is  able  and 
has  many  waggons,  that  he  direct  himself  to  the  same  wood  where 
I  cut  the  props,  and  that  he  procure  for  himself  more,  and  load 
his  waggons  with  fair  beams,  that  he  may  construct  many  a  fair 
wall,  and  many  a  beautiful  house,  and  many  a  town  and  dwell  there 
merrily  and  peacefully,  both  winter  and  summer,  as  I  have  not 
done. 

With  this  parable  Alfred  closes  his  literary  career. 


The  Translation  of  Gregory's  "  Dialogues  "   '  ^5 

The  literature  of  the  reign  for  which  the  king  was  not  directly 
responsible  owed  at  least  its  inspiration  to  him.  In  the  monas- 
teries the  work  of  producing  MSS.  went  forward  with  great 
activity,  but  the  scribes  were  engaged  in  merely  copying  out 
books;  they  did  no  original  work.  It  had  been  customary, 
however,  for  the  monks  to  keep  record  of  events  of  outstand- 
ing importance.  These  monastic  records  were  of  the  briefest 
possible  kind,  designed  to  serve  merely  as  landmarks  in  the 
passage  of  time  and  not  as  historical  surveys,  but  in  these 
casual  and  unsystematic  notes  Alfred  perceived  the  nucleus 
for  a  larger  survey  of  West  Saxon  history.  The  change  in  the 
tone  of  the  Chronicle  has  been  ascribed  to  Aethelwulf's  reign, 
but  it  is  probable  that  Alfred  was  responsible  for  the  systematic 
revision  of  the  earlier  records  back  to  Hengest  and  Horsa, 
and  his  connection  with  the  Chronicle  is  possibly  referred  to  in 
Gaimar's  Estorie  des  Engles,  though  the  allusion  is  somewhat 
obscure.  The  Chronicle,  as  known  to  us,  is  a  highly  composite 
piece  of  work,  and  it  consists  of  various  recensions,  the  relations 
between  which  have  been  carefully  worked  out  by  Earle  and 
Plummer.^  The  original  nucleus  belonged  to  Winchester, 
the  capital  of  the  West  Saxon  kingdom.  The  Alfredian 
version  comes  down  to  892  only,  at  which  date  the  first  hand 
in  the  MS.  ceases,  and  of  this  portion  Alfred  may  be  supposed 
to  have  acted  as  supervisor. 

From  a  historical  point  of  view,  the  Chronicle  was  the  first 
national  continuous  history  of  a  western  nation  in  its  own 
language;  from  a  literary  point  of  view%  it  was  the  first  great 
book  in  English  prose.  The  account  of  the  years  893-7  is  one 
of  the  most  vivid  in  the  whole  of  the  annals.  The  struggle 
with  the  Danes  and  the  great  series  of  campaigns  extending 
over  the  whole  of  the  south  of  England  are  described  in  detail. 
At  one  time  the  king  is  at  Exeter  while  Aethelred,  the  ealdor- 
man,  is  occupied  on  the  Severn,  the  struggle  extending  north 
as  far  as  York  and  Chester.  Alfred's  military  and  naval 
reforms  are  enlarged  upon,  the  king's  brilliant  exploits,  and 
his  care  for  the  nation's  well-being,  inspiring  the  annalist  with 
the  spirit  of  a  historian.  The  whole  narrative  is  a  masterpiece 
of  Old  English  prose,  full  of  vigour  and  life. 

'  The  different  recensions  of  the  Chronicle  and  its  further  development 
are  dealt  with  in  the  chapter  that  follows. 


-? 


ii6  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

The  West  Saxon  translation  of  Gregory's  Dialogues  owed 
its  inspiration  directly  to  Alfred.  The  authorship  of  the  trans- 
lation has  never  been  called  in  question;  both  Asser  and 
William  of  Malmesbury  attribute  it  to  Werferth,  bishop  of  Wor- 
cester, who  undertook  the  task  at  the  king's  bidding.  The  book 
is  partly  in  dialogue  form.  Gregory  is  found  by  his  deacon, 
Peter,  sitting  "in  a  solitary  place,  very  fit  for  a  sad  and  mel- 
ancholy disposition."  The  stories  which  Gregory  proceeds  to 
tell,  serve  to  relieve  his  mind  of  its  weight  of  thought.  The 
monk,  Martinius,  impresses  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  a  hearth- 
cake  with  a  motion  of  the  hand ;  a  sweet  fragrance  miraculously 
arises  from  the  grave  of  count  Theophanius ;  bishop  Frigidianus 
turns  the  course  of  the  Serchio  by  marking  out  its  bed  with  a 
rake.  Book  ii  is  exclusively  devoted  to  St.  Benedict.  The 
collection  was  an  attempt  to  complete  the  accepted  lives  of  the 
saints  by  a  recital  of  miraculous  deeds  performed  in  Italy. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  book  Gregory  lea\'es  Italy  and  tells 
the  story  of  St.  Hermenegild  and  his  brother  king  Recarede. 
The  preface,  in  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  MSS.,  is  the  work  of 
the  king  and  is  thus  of  particular  interest — 

I,  Alfred,  by  God's  grace,  dignified  with  the  title  of  king,  have 
perceived  and  often  learnt  from  the  reading  of  sacred  books,  that 
we,  to  whom  God  hath  given  so  much  worldly  honour,  have  particu- 
lar need  to  humble  and  subdue  our  minds  to  the  divine  laws  in  the 
midst  of  worldly  cares ;  accordingly,  I  besought  my  faithful  friends 
that  they  would  write  down  out  of  holy  books  concerning  the 
miracles  of  the  saints  the  following  narrative;  that  I,  strengthened 
in  my  mind  by  admonition  and  love,  might  think  upon  spiritual 
things  in  the  midst  of  my  worldly  cares. 

The  MSS.  of  the  Dialogues  have  given  rise  to  interesting 
problems.  The  Cambridge  and  British  Museum  types  are 
closely  related  and  stand  apart  from  that  of  Oxford.  From 
this  fact  Krebs  deduced  the  theory  that  the  Dialogues  were 
translated  on  two  separate  occasions.  A  more  careful  com- 
parison of  the  MSS.  has  shown  that  they  are  all  derived  from 
a  single  original,  of  which  the  Oxford  type  represents  a  revised 
version. 

The  West  Saxon  Martyrology  may  be  ascribed  to  Alfred's 
reign.  Cockayne  was  of  opinion  that  the  oldest  MS. — 
that  in  the  British  Museum — dates  from  the  ninth  century. 


Works  Ascribed  to  Alfred  ^n 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  saints  referred  to  belong  either 
to  the  period  preceding  the  king's  reign  or  to  the  reign  itself. 
Another  proof  of  the  age  of  the  collection  is  the  fact  that  under 
5  August  Oswald  is  described  as  buried  at  Bardney,  though 
his  body  was  moved  to  Gloucester  soon  after  Alfred's  death. 
The  story  of  St.  Milus  (15  November)  seems  to  have  been  derived 
from  the  east.  The  Leech-hook  attests  Alfred's  relations  with 
Elias,  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  whose  rule  extended  from 
897  to  907.  The  Martyrology  is  incomplete,  but  it  extends 
from  3 1  December  to  2 1  December. 

Alfred's  literary  reputation  caused  a  number  of  other  works 
to  be  ascribed  to  him  for  which  there  is  no  trustworthy  evidence. 
Of  these  the  most  important  is  the  so-called  Psalter.  William 
of  Malmesbury  makes  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  Alfred 
began  a  translation  of  the  Psalms,  but  was  unable  to  complete 
it — Psalterium  transferre  aggressus  vix  prima  parte  explicata 
Vivendi  finem  fecit.''-  Curiously  enough,  an  eleventh  century 
MS.  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  at  Paris  contains  an  Old 
English  prose  version  of  the  first  fifty  psalms,  followed  by  an 
alliterative  version  of  the  remainder  (psalms  li-cl).  Wiilker 
conjectures  that  the  prose  portions  were  based  on  the  work  of 
Alfred  referred  to  by  William  of  Malmesbury.  Each  psalm  is 
preceded  by  an  introduction,  in  which  are  set  forth  the  circum- 
stances under  which  the  psalm  was  written.  The  translation 
is  free,  and  the  method  of  rendering  one  w^ord  by  two  is  fre- 
quently resorted  to.  In  this  latter  respect  the  prose  Psalter 
resembles  Alfred's  Bede  and  Pastoral  Care.^  The  alliterative 
portions  in  the  Paris  MS.  were  probably  introduced  to  supple- 
ment the  deficiencies  of  the  prose  version ;  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  a  complete  alliterative  version  of  the  Psalms  was  in  exist- 
ence when  the  prose  was  undertaken. 

Alfred  has  been  credited  with  a  collection  of  Proverbs  in 
metrical  form.  In  favour  of  this  there  is  not  the  slightest 
evidence.  For  centuries  he  must  have  had  some  reputation  as  a 
philosopher,  and  an  anonymous  collection  of  maxims  would 
naturally  be  associated  with  his  name.  A  treatise  on  Falconry 
and  a  translation  of  Aesop's  Fables  have  also  been  attributed 
to  him,  but  for  neither  of  these  is  there  any  evidence. 

1  Gesta  Regum  Anglorum,  11.  §  123. 

2  But  see  Bruce's  Anglo-Saxon  Version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms. 


iiS  The  Prose  of  Alfred 

Alfred's  literary  achievement  is  of  immense  importance. 
The  prominence  given  to  the  vernacular  during  his  reign  made 
it  possible  for  English  literature  to  develop  on  its  own  lines. 
He  was  wise  enough  to  limit  himself  to  the  work  of  translation, 
since  he  had  not,  apparently,  great  creative  genius  in  letters. 
But  the  effect  of  his  choice  of  models  was  to  introduce  a  large 
Latin  element  into  Old  English  prose  style.  Compared  with 
the  abrupt  and  rugged  style  of  the  king  Cynewulf  episode  in  the 
early  part  of  the  Chronicle,  Alfred's  prose  is  that  of  an  accom- 
plished writer :  compared  with  later  prose,  it  is  largely  tentative. 
It  was  not  until  nearly  a  century  later  that  more  definite  results 
were  achieved  when  Aelfric  took  up  the  task  left  incomplete 
by  the  West  Saxon  king.  Apart  from  the  historic  estimate, 
Alfred  has  some  personal  claim  to  recognition  as  a  prose  writer. 
His  original  passages,  however  much  they  may  owe  to  undis- 
covered sources,  embody  his  own  personal  convictions,  and 
afford  a  remarkable  proof  of  his  ability  to  inform  with  life  the 
materials  at  his  disposal.  In  literature,  personality  is  of  the 
utmost  importance,  and  Alfred  is  one  of  the  most  personal  of 
writers.  He  is  the  embodiment,  not  only  of  the  intellectual, 
but  of  the  spiritual,  thoughts  of  his  time.  His  writings  con- 
stantly reveal  his  aspirations  after  truth,  and,  even  in  the 
Laws,  there  is  a  definitely  religious  tone.  "I  have  wished," 
he  writes  in  Boethius,  "to  live  worthily  while  I  lived,  and  to 
leave  to  those  who  should  come  after  me  my  memory  in  good 
deeds."  And,  in  the  language  of  the  inscription  on  the  monu- 
ment erected  to  his  memory  at  Wantage  in  1877,  he  "found 
learning  dead,  and  he  restored  it;  education  neglected,  and  he 
revived  it." 


CHAPTER  VII 
FROM  ALFRED  TO  THE  CONQUEST 

IT  seems  permissible  to  treat  the  year  901,  when  king 
Alfred  died,  as  the  dividing  line  between  the  earlier 
and  later  periods  of  Old  English  literature.  According 
to  this  classification,  nearly  all  the  poetry  composed  in  this 
country  before  the  Norman  conquest  would  fall  within  the 
first  period ;  while  the  bulk  of  the  prose  writings  in  the  vernacu- 
lar would  be  included  in  the  second.  It  was,  indeed,  during 
the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  that  our  language  in  its  Old 
English  stage  attained  its  highest  development  as  a  prose 
medium.  The  circumstances  of  the  time  were  unfavourable 
to  the  production  of  sustained  poems.  This  may  be  owing 
to  the  gradual  break-up  of  Old  English  tradition  and  to  the 
influence  of  another  Germanic  literature,  then  at  its  height, 
in  the  English  court.  The  chief  poetical  fragments  that  have 
survived  from  these  years  deal  with  contemporary  events, 
and  seem  to  be  the  outbreak  of  emotions  too  strong  to  be 
suppressed. 

Like  feelings  find  their  expression  also  in  the  prose  litera- 
ture of  these  centuries,  which  saw  not  only  the  rise  of  the  West 
Saxon  kings  to  full  mastery  over  England,  but  also  the  victories 
of  Dane  and  Norman,  and  the  quenching  of  aU  hope  of  English 
rule  over  England  until  the  conquered  should  absorb  the  con- 
querors. There  was  scarcely  a  year  during  this  period  in  which 
the  harassed  rulers  of  the  kingdom  could  afford  to  lay  aside 
their  arms;  though  during  the  time  of  comparative  quiet 
between  the  death  of  Aethelstan  and  the  accession  of  Aethelred 
England  took  an  active  part  in  the  monastic  revival  which 
was  so  marked  a  feature  of  contemporary  European  history. 
In  these  times  of  struggle,  letters  and  learning  found,  for  a 
time,   their  grave,   and  long  years  of  patient  struggle  were 

needed  to  revive  them. 

119 


1 20  The  Old  English  ' '  Chronicle ' ' 

The  gloomy  tale  is  nowhere  better  told  than  in  the  Chroni- 
cle, which,  written  in  simple  language,  alone  marks  for  more 
than  half  a  century  the  continuance  of  literary  activity  in 
England. 

The  beginning  of  the  Chronicle  is  usually  ascribed  to  the 
influence  of  Alfred,  and  it  continues  for  two  and  a  half  centuries 
after  that  king's  reign,  long  after  the  last  English  king  had 
been  slain  and  the  old  tongue  banished  from  court  and  school. 
Its  principal  recensions  ^  differ  from  one  another  not  in  the  main 
story,  but  in  the  attention  given  to  various  details,  and  in  the 
length  to  which  they  are  carried.  Owing  to  the  number  of 
hands  employed  in  its  composition,  the  literary  merit  is  very 
unequal ;  sometimes  the  entries  consist  of  a  date  and  the  simple 
statement  of  an  event ;  at  others  we  find  passages  of  fluent  and 
glowing  narrative,  as  in  the  record  of  the  war-filled  3^ears  from 
911  to  924.  The  period  from  925  to  975  is  very  bare,  and  such 
entries  as  exist  relate  mostly  to  church  matters.  It  is,  however, 
within  this  time  that  the  principal  poems  of  the  Chronicle  are 
inserted.  Under  991  is  told  the  story  of  Anlaf's  raid  at  Maldon 
in  which  Byrhtnoth  fell.  In  the  years  975-1001  the  Chronicle 
is  of  extreme  interest,  and  the  annals  for  the  year  looi  are  very 
full.  Some  time  about  the  middle,  or  towards  the  last  quarter, 
of  the  eleventh  century  the  present  recension  of  the  Winchester 
chronicle  was  transplanted  to  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  and 
there  completed  with  Canterbury  annals,  passages  being  inter- 
polated in  various  places  from  beginning  to  end  from  the 
chronicle  kept  at  St.  Augustine's,  Christ  Church  library  having 
been  previously  burnt.  Before  this,  the  notice  taken  of 
Canterbury  events  was  so  extremely  slight  that  we  do  not  even 
hear  of  the  murder  of  archbishop  Aelfheah  (St.  Alphege)  by 
the  Danes. 2  The  MS.  known  as  Cott.  Tib.  A.  vi  seems  to  have 
been  originally  meant  to  serve  as  an  introduction  to  further 
annals,  which,  however,  were  never  written;  and  it  is  appar- 

•  The  Winchester  or  Parker  chronicle,  in  the  Hbrary  of  Corpus  Christi 
College,  Cambridge;  the  shorter  Abingdon  chronicle  (Cott.  Tib.  A.  vi);  the 
longer  Abingdon  chronicle  (Cott.  Tib.  B.  i);  the  Evesham  or  Worcester 
chronicle  (Cott.  Tib.  B.  iv);  the  Peterborough  chronicle  (Bod.  Laud.  636). 

2  The  recension  under  notice  is  a  copy  of  the  original  Winchester  chronicle., 
which  latter  was  also  the  source  of  the  original  Abingdon  chronicle.  Hence 
the  agreement  with  Tib.  A.  vi,  and  Tib,  B,  i.  up  to  892.  Naturally,  it  does  not 
incorporate  the  Mercian  chronicle,  but  maintains  a  kind  of  separate  parallel- 
ism from  894-915. 


From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest  121 

ently  a  copy  of  the  original  Abingdon  chronicle  (itself  a  copy 
of  the  original  Winchester,  written  at  Abingdon),  which  did 
not  reach  beyond  977.     The  MS.  under  consideration  is  shown 
by  a  mass  of  internal  and  external  evidence    to  have  been 
written  about  977,  the  year  to  which  its  annals  reach.     It  may 
fitly  be  called  the  shorter  Abingdon  chronicle  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  longer  Abingdon  chronicle  referred  to  below,  with 
which    it    has  much  in  common  ;i  both,  for  example,  bodily 
insert  the  Mercian  annals  (sometimes  called  the  chronicle  of 
Aethelfiaed).     These  extend  from  902-925,  and  tell,  with  some 
detail,  of  the  warlike  feats  of  the  Lady  of  Mercia.     It  may  be 
noted,  in  passing,  that  these  Mercian  annals  occur  in  the  so- 
called  Worcester  chronicle, ^   where,   however,   they   are   dis- 
tributed, with  some  omissions,  amongst  other  matter.     These 
Mercian  annals  are  of  the  greatest  interest,  both  in  origin  and 
history.     Their  chronology  differs  considerably  from  that  of 
other  chronicles.     Perhaps   the   original   document,    or  some 
copy  of  it,  in  which  they  were  contained,  is  to  be  traced  under 
the  record  Cronica  duo  Anglica  in  the  Catalogi  veteres  librortim 
Ecclesiae  Dunehni,  where  we  also  find  the  record  of  Elfledes  Boo 
in  the  same  place.     This  at  once  suggests  to  us  the  existence 
of    these  annals    in    a   book  of    Aethelfiaed,    telling    of    her 
fight     for    English    freedom.      Thus     the     inscription     and 
record    bring   us     into    close    connection    with    what     may 
well    have    suggested    and   stimulated     the   heroic   poem   of 
Judith? 

The  {longer)  Abingdon  chronicle  is  so  called  because,  from 
its  references  to  the  affairs  of  that  monastery,  it  is  supposed 
to  have  been  written  there.  This  longer  chronicle  is  not  ex- 
panded from  the  shorter,  nor  the  shorter  extracted  from  the 
longer.  Both  have  a  number  of  independent  annals  up  to 
the  very  year  977  where  the  common  original  ended.  It  may 
be  surmised  that  the  author  of  the  recension  under  notice 
found  the  original  Abingdon  ready  up  to  977  (when  the  troubles 
consequent  on  Edgar's  death  may  have  accounted  for  many 
things),  and  further  annals  up  to  10 18,  to  which  he  made  later 
additions.  The  MS.  tells  of  the  election  of  Siward,  abbot 
of    Abingdon,    as    archbishop    of    Canterbury    in    1044,    the 

>  Cott.  Tib.   B.  I      2  Cott.  Tib.  B.  iv.        J    See  p.   142. 


122  The  Old  English  "Chronicle" 

appointment  of  Aethelstan  as  his  successor  to  the  abbacy, 
Aethelstan's  death  in  1047  and  archbishop  Siward's  return 
to  the  monastery  after  his  retirement  from  ofHce  in 
1048. 

In  892,  a  copy  of  the  southern  chronicle  was  sent  to  a  north- 
ern cloister,  and  there  was  revised  with  the  aid  of  the  text  of 
Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History.  There  seems,  also  to  have  been 
a  northern  continuation  of  Bede's  History,  and,  from  this,  were 
woven  into  the  chronicler's  text  annals  737-806.  Fifteen  of 
these  annals  are  wholly,  and  sixteen  partly,  Northumbrian. 
That  these  annals  were  taken  from  some  such  source  seems  to 
be  proved  by  their  being  found  also  in  other  works.  The 
chronicler  then  followed  southern  sources  until  904,  when  he 
began  to  weave  into  his  text  the  book  of  Aethelfiaed,  mingling 
with  it  southern  and  northern  records.  From  983-1022,  he 
returned  to  his  Abingdon  source.  After  this  he  struck  out  on 
his  own  line.  From  the  original  thus  created  was  copied  the 
extant  MS.  commonly  known  as  the  Worcester  or  Evesham 
chronicle,  1  which  shows  especial  acquaintance  with  the  mid- 
lands and  north.  The  close  connection  between  Worcester 
and  York  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  archbishop  of  York  is 
mentioned  simply  as  "the  archbishop."  The  chronicle  shows 
strong  feeling  on  the  subject  of  Godwin's  outlawry,  and  in 
every  way  supports  that  nobleman.  Alone  amongst  the  chron- 
icles it  tells  the  sad  tale  of  the  battle  of  Hastings.  The  original 
from  which  the  above  chronicle  was  copied,  seems  also  to 
have  been  the  basis  for  that  patriotic  Kentish  chronicle,  now 
lost,  which  was  the  chief  source  both  of  the  Peterborough 
chronicle  up  to  11 23  and  the  rescension  known  as  Cott.  Dom. 
A.  VIII,  2. 

The  Peterborough  chronicle 2  is  the  longest  of  all,  extending 
to  the  year  11 54.  In  11 16  the  town  and  monastery  of  Peter- 
borough were  destroyed  by  a  terrible  fire,  which  left  standing 
only  the  monastic  chapterhouse  and  dormitory,  and  when, 
in  1 121,  the  rebuilding  was  completed,  the  annals  contained 
in  this  chronicle  were  undertaken  to  replace  those  lost  in  the 
fire.  They  were  based  on  the  lost  Kentish  chronicle,  which 
must  have  been  forwarded  to  Peterborough  for  that  purpose. 

>  Cott.  Tib.  IV.  2  Bod.  Laud.  636. 


From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest  ^-3 

This  original  Kentish  chronicle  is  full  of  patriotic  feeling  and 
shows  great  knowledge  of  southern  affairs  from  Canute's  death, 
the  burial  of  Harold  Harefoot  (the  record  of  which  it  alone 
rightly  tells)  and  the  viking  raid  on  Sandwich,  to  the  feuds 
between  English  and  Norman  in  the  reign  of  the  Confessor. 
It  relates  count  Eustace's  broils  with  the  English  of  Canterbury 
and  Dover,  and  the  flight  of  archbishop  Robert,  leaving  his 
pallium  behind  him,  an  annal  recorded  with  dangerously 
schismatic  glee.  The  scribe  had  lived  at  the  court  of 
William  the  Conqueror,  and  had,  therefore,  seen  the  face  of 
the  great  enemy  of  the  English.  The  entries  for  the  tenth 
century  are  very  meagre ;  but  from  991  to  1075  they  are  much 
fuller  and  contain,  among  other  contemporary  records, 
the  story  of  the  ravages  of  Hereward.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  chronicle,  which  is  wTitten  in  a  somewhat  rough 
and  ready  manner,  occurs  the'  famous  passage,  so  often 
quoted  by  historians,  telling  of  the  wretchedness  of  the 
common  folk  during  the  reign  of  Stephen  and  its  civil 
wars. 

From  the  lost  Kentish  chronicle  is  derived  the  recension 
known  as  F  or  Cott.  Domitian  A.  viii,  2,  seemingly  written 
by  one  hand  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  of  interest  because 
of  its  mixed  use  of  Latin  and  English.  In  this  it  indicates  the 
approach  of  the  employment  of  Latin  as  the  general  literary 
vehicle  of  English  culture.  There  is  great  confusion  in  its 
bilingual  employment  of  Latin  and  English ;  sometimes  English 
is  the  original  and  Latin  the  copy,  at  other  times  the  process 
is  reversed ;  finally,  in  some  passages,  Latin  and  English  become 
ludicrously  mixed.  Two  other  recensions  exist  as  mere  frag- 
ments :  one,  of  three  damaged  leaves,  in  a  hand  of  the  eleventh 
century,  is  bound  up  with  a  copy  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory^ ;  and  the  other  ^  consists  of  a  single  leaf.  The  manuscript 
to  which  the  former  of  these  fragments  belonged  was  edited 
by  Wheloc  in  1644  before  it  was  consumed  in  the  Cottonian 
fire. 

The  following  tablet  adapted  from  Plummer  shows  the  relations 
of  the  various  MSS.  to  each  other,  the  extant  MSS.  being  indicated 
by  initial  letters ; 

>  Cott.  0th.   B.   XI,  2.  2  Cott.  Tib.  A.  iii,  fol.    175. 


124  The  Old  English  "Chronicle" 

Original   Winchester 

\ 

1  I 

(A)  Winchester     Original    Abingdon 

i  \  ^1 

(B)  {shorter)  Abingdon    (C)   (Longer)  Abingdon     Original  Worcester 


Lost  Kentish  (D)  Worcester 

i 

I  1 

Lost  enlarged  Kentish  (F)  MS.  Cotton  Dom.  A.  viii,  2. 

I 
(E)   Peterborough 

The  Chronicle  is  of  inestimable  value  as  an  authority  for 
the  history  of  the  time.  The  impression  it  leaves  on  the  reader 
is  one  of  almost  unrelieved  gloom.  Records  of  harrying  with 
fire  and  sword  occur  on  almost  every  page,  and,  whether  the 
English  ealdormen  or  the  Danes  "possess  the  place  of  slaugh- 
ter," the  wild  lawlessness  and  the  contempt  for  human  life 
which  prevailed  during  the  greater  part  of  the  period  are  plainly 
visible.  Sometimes  the  chronicler  displays  bitter  indignation 
at  the  misgovernment  of  the  country,  as  when  he  tells  how 
Aethelred  and  his  ealdormen  and  the  high  witan  forsook  the 
navy  which  had  been  collected  with  immense  effort  by  the 
people  and  "let  the  toil  of  all  the  nation  thus  lightly  perish." 
But  the  entries  are  usually  of  an  entirely  impersonal  kind ;  the 
horror  and  desolation,  the  fiery  signs  in  the  heaven,  and  the 
plagues  that  befell  men  and  cattle  upon  earth,  are  recorded 
without  comment;  such  misfortunes  were  too  common  to  call 
for  special  remark  in  the  days  of  the  long  struggle  between 
Dane  and  Englishman. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  this  portion  of  the  Chronicle 
contains  several  fragments  of  verse.  These  will  be  noticed 
later.  Here,  it  may,  however,  be  remarked  that  some  passages 
written  as  prose  are  based  on  songs  which  have  been  inserted, 
after  some  slight  modification,  by  the  scribe;  and,  towards  the 
end  of  the  Peterborough  chronicle,  there  occur  some  long 
stretches  of  rhythmic  prose  almost  akin  to  the  sung  verse  of 
the  people.  These  may  be  either  a  development  of  the  loose 
rhythm  of  Aelfric's  prose,  or  may,  possibly,  result  from  the 
incorporation  of  ballads  and  their  reduction  to  prose.  The 
subject  is,  however,  still  too  obscure  to  admit  of  any  very 
definite  statement  on  this  point,  and  most  of  what  has  been, 
said  on  this  subject  seems  far  removed  from  finality. 


The  Monastic  Reform  i-5 

From  this  brief  description  of  the  manuscripts  of  the 
Chronicle  we  must  turn  to  the  homilists,  who  showed  especial 
vigour  between  960  and  1020.  The  development  reached  in 
style  and  in  literary  tradition  is  at  once  apparent ;  it  had  its 
origin,  doubtless,  in  the  religious  revival  of  the  tenth  century, 
which  emanated  from  Fleury,  and  was  identified  in  England 
with  the  names  of  Dunstan,  Aethelwold  and  Oswald,  the  "three 
torches"  of  the  church. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  century,  English  monasticism 
and,  therefore,  the  state  of  learning  in  England,  were  in  a 
deplorable  condition,  from  which  all  the  efforts  of  king  Alfred 
had  been  unable  to  lift  them.  There  were  religious  houses, 
of  course,  but  most  of  these  seem  to  have  been  in  the  condition 
of  Abingdon  when  Aethelwold  was  appointed  abbot — "a  place 
in  which  a  little  monastery  had  been  kept  up  from  ancient 
days,  but  then  desolate  and  neglected,  consisting  of  mean 
buildings  and  possessing  only  a  few  hides."  To  the  influence 
of  the  Benedictine  reformers  we  owe  much  of  the  prose  litera- 
ture of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries.  The  great  bond  thus 
knit  once  more  between  English  literature  and  the  literature 
of  the  continent  ensured  our  share  in  what  was  then  living  of 
classical  and  pseudo-classical  lore. 

With  the  accession  of  Edgar  (959)  better  times  dawned. 
On  the  death  of  Odo,  Dunstan  became  archbishop,  and,  in  961 
Oswald,  Odo's  nephew,  was  consecrated  to  the  see  of  Worcester. 
His  appointment  w^as  followed  in  963  by  that  of  Aethelwold, 
abbot  of  Abingdon,  to  the  see  of  Winchester,  and  the  three 
bishops  set  about  a  vigorous  ecclesiastical  reform.  During 
the  reigns  of  Edgar  and  his  sons  no  fewer  than  forty  monas- 
teries for  men  were  founded  or  restored ,  and  these  were  peopled 
chiefly  by  monks  trained  at  Abingdon  or  Winchester. 

The  most  famous  school  of  all  was  that  founded  at  Win- 
chester by  Aethelwold,  one  of  the  most  distiguished  of  the 
pupils  of  Dunstan,  and  himself  an  enthusiastic  teacher,  who 
did  not  scorn  to  explain  the  difficulties  of  Donatus  and  Priscian 
to  the  postulants  and  other  youthful  frequenters  of  the  Bene- 
dictine school.  The  most  important  of  his  scholars  was  Aelfric, 
the  greatest  prose  writer  in  the  vernacular  before  the  Conquest. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  newly  restored  monasteries  naturally 
required  instruction  in  the  Benedictine  rule,  and  to  this  neces- 


c 


"7 


126  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

sity  is  due  the  version  of  the  rule  which  Aethelwold  drew  up  un- 
der the  title  Regularis  Concordia  Anglicae  Natioms  Monachorum 
Sanctimonialiiimque .  In  the  beginning  of  this  he  stated  that 
the  work  had  the  sanction  of  the  king,  and  that  it  was  framed 
at  a  council  at  Winchester.  The  name  of  the  writer  is  nowhere 
given,  and,  were  it  not  that  Aelfric,  in  his  Letter  to  the  Monks  of 
Eynsham,  says  that  the  source  of  his  information  is  bishop 
Aethelwold's  De  Consuetudine,  and  quotes  long  passages  from 
the  Regularis  (evidently  the  same  work) ,  we  should  be  ignorant 
of  the  authorship.^ 

But  it  was  not  enough  to  multiply  copies  and  commentaries 
of  the  Rule  in  Latin.  Many  of  the  newly  admitted  postulants 
and  novices  were  quite  ignorant  of  that  language,  and,  there- 
fore, king  Edgar  further  entrusted  Aethelwold  with  the  task  of 
translating  the  Rule  into  English,  giving  him  in  acknowledg- 
ment the  manor  of  Southborne,  which  he  assigned  to  the  newly 
restored  monastery  at  Ely.  There  are  several  MSS.  containing 
an  Old  English  version  of  the  Rule,  and  in  one  of  them^  it  is 
followed  by  a  historical  sketch  of  the  monastic  revival  of  the 
tenth  century,  which  recounts  Edgar's  share  in  the  movement, 
his  refounding  of  Abingdon  and  his  command  to  translate 
into  English  the  Rule.  Schroer  thinks  that  this  tractate 
is  by  the  author  of  the  foregoing  version  of  the  Rule;  but, 
since  the  writer  calls  himelf  everywhere  "abbot,"  and  not 
"bishop,"  if  it  is  by  Aethelwold  he  must  have  made  it  between 
959,  the  year  of  Edgar's  accession,  and  963,  when  he  became 
bishop  of  Winchester. 

It  is  possible  that  the  Blickling  Homilies,  so  called  because 
the  MS.  is  preser\'^ed  at  Blickling  Hall,  Norfolk,  were  also  due 
to  this  religious  revival.  They  are  nineteen  in  number,  but 
several  are  incomplete,  and  some  are  mere  fragments.  The 
earlier  homilies  are  sermons,  properly  so  called ;  but  the  later 
are  largely  narrative  in  character,  and  are  based  on  legendary 
sources. 

The  style  of  these  homilies  stands  midway  between  the 
style._of  Alfred  a,nd._±liat.i)f  Aelfric;  it  is  more  developed  than 
the  one,  more  primitive  than  the  other;  it  is  rude,  vehement 

'  Miss  Bateson,  Rules  for  monks  and  secular  canons  after  the  revival  under 
king  Edgar,  Eng.  Hist.  Review,  1894. 
2  Faustina  A.  x. 


"  The  Blickling  Homilies  "  127 

and  homely,  more  indulgent  of  legend  and  shows  the  primitive 
love  for  recitative ;  the  syntax  is  clumsy,  and  the  vocabulary 
often  archaic.  On  the  other  hand  the  treatment  is  some- 
times very  poetical,  though  this  characteristic  appears  rather 
in  simile  and  metaphor  than  in  rhythm  of  structure.  "The 
redness  of  the  rose  glitters  in  thee,  and  the  whiteness  of  the 
lily  shines  in  thee,"  says  Gabriel  to  Mary;  and  Heaven  is  pic- 
tured as  a  place  where  there  "  is  youth  without  age ;  nor  is  there 
hunger  nor  thirst,  nor  wind  nor  storm  nor  rush  of  waters." 
The  palm  branch  in  the  hand  of  the  angel  who  announces  to  the 
Virgin  her  approaching  death  is  "bright  as  the  morning  star," 
and  the  Lord  appears  to  Andrew  w4th  a  face  "like  that  of 
a  fair  child."  Equally  poetical  are  the  passages  that  deal 
with  more  sombre  themes,  such  as  doomsday,  the  lamen- 
tation of  the  lost  at  the  harrowing  of  hell  and  the  vision  of 
St.  Paul  of  the  souls  clinging  to  the  cliffs  from  which  the  devils 
sought  to  drag  them  away.  Morris  has  pointed  out  that  there 
is  a  good  deal  of  similarity  between  this  last  passage  and  the 
well-known  lines  in  Beowulf  which  describes  the  "  rimy  groves" 
which  grew  above  the  abyss  where  Grendel  had  his  home.  But 
exactly  similar  descriptions  are  found  in  all  other  versions  of 
this  aged  legend.^  Aelfric,  it  is  true,  rejected  the  legend  on 
critical  grounds,  but  the  coming  centuries  were  to  see  it  be- 
come the  basis  of  a  masterpiece  of  the  world's  poetry.  Com- 
parisons of  these  Old  English  legends  with  their  sources  and 
cognate  branches  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the  poetic  element 
which  was  inherent  in  them  could  scarcely  be  destroyed  alto- 
gether, however  poor  the  translation  might  be. 

The  probable  date  of  these  homilies  is  towards  the  close  of 
the  third  quarter  of  the  tenth  century;  they  refer  to  the  uni- 
versal belief,  based  on  a  misunderstanding  of  the  Talmud ic 
metaphor  prevailing  throughout  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  that 
the  year  looo  would  see  the  end  of  the  world;  and  one  of  them, 
the  eleventh,  contains  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  it  was  com- 
posed in  971.  This  date  cannot  be  accepted  as  indisputably 
that  of  the  whole  collection ;  the  passage  may  be  an  interpola- 
tion, and,  moreover,  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  all  the 
homilies  were  composed  at  the  same  time,  or  by  one  writer. 

1  Cf.  the  Provenyal. 


128  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

During  these  years  Aelfric  was  growing  up  in  the  monastery 
school  at  Winchester.  The  exact  year  of  his  birth  is  not 
known,  but,  as  he  himself  tells  us  that  he  spent  many  years  as 
a  pupil  of  Aethelwold,  who  died  in  984,  we  may,  perhaps,  put  the 
date  at  about  955.  It  is  worth  noticing  that,  in  his  Life  of 
St.  Swithim,  Aelfric  describes  with  some  detail  the  translation 
of  the  relics  of  that  saint  to  the  restored  cathedral  at  Win- 
chester, and,  as  this  took  place  in  971,  he  was  probably  then 
a  postulant.  We  know  that  he  was  a  priest,  and  over  thirty 
years  of  age,  when,  in  987,  he  was  sent  to  the  abbey  of  Cerne  in 
Dorsetshire  to  instruct  the  brethren  in  the  Benedictine  rule, 
that  is  to  say,  when  he  was  novice-master  of  Cerne  abbey. 

It  was  soon  after  this  that  Aelfric  composed  his  first  homi- 
lies, in  two  series,  each  of  which  has  a  Latin  preface  addressed 
to  Sigeric,  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  As  Sigeric's  years  of 
office  extended  only  from  989  to  995,  and  as  he  was  absent  in 
Rome  during  the  first  two  or  three  of  these  years,  the  homilies 
were  probably  composed  between  the  years  990  and  995. 
The  second  series  is  more  exactly  dated  by  a  reference  in  the 
Latin  preface  to  the  Danish  attack  on  Southampton  in  994, 
so  that  we  may  assign  the  first  collection  to  the  years  990  to 

993- 

In  addition  to  the  Latin  prefaces,  there  is  prefixed  to  each 

series  a  statement  in  English  composed  much  later,  probably 

after   10 16,   recounting  the  reasons  which  had   induced   the 

author  to  turn  them  from  Latin  into  the  vernacular.     In  the 

first,  he  explains  that  he  has  done  it  for  the  sake  of  unlearned 

men,  who,  especially  at  this  time,  when  the  end  of  the  world 

is  approaching,   need  to  be  fortified  against  tribulation  and 

hardship;  and,  remembering  the  injunctions  of  Christ,  Aelfric 

believed  it  to  be  his  duty  also  to  teach  the  ignorant.     The 

English  preface  to  the  second  series  is  much  shorter,  simply 

stating  the   author's  reasons   for  dividing  the  homilies   into 

two  books,  and  giving  the  sources  in  general  terms. 

According  to  the  original  plan  each  collection  was  to  consist 

of  forty  sermons,  and  each  was  to  cover  the  whole  of  the  church 

year,  the  second  treating  of  such  Sundays  and  feast-days  as 

were  not  mentioned  in  the  first.     But  neither  in  the  manuscripts 

nor  in  Thorpe's  edition  does  the  number  of  homilies  correspond 

with  this  scheme;  for,  while  the  first  series  contains  forty,  the 


The  Works  of  Aelfric  129 

second  has  forty-five,  of  which  the  last  six  do  not  belong  to  the 
original  collection.  This  gives  only  thirty-nine;  but  if  the 
two  semions  for  mid-Lent  Sunday  are  counted  separately  we 
arrive  at  the  proper  number.  The  two  series  w^ere  designed  to 
give  alternate  sermons  for  the  greater  feast-days,  the  first 
series  being  simple,  doctrinal  and  instructive,  the  second  dis- 
cursive, historical  and  more  elaborate,  with  much  narrative.^ 
Although  the  subjects  of  the  sennons  are  appropriate  to 
the  days  for  which  they  were  intended,  there  is  also  an  attempt 
to  give  a  large  survey  of  biblical  and  ecclesiastical  history. 
Thus,  the  first  homily  of  the  first  series,  De  Initio  Creaturae, 
treats  not  only  of  creation,  but  relates  the  stories  of  the  fall, 
the  flood,  the  dispersal  of  tongues,  the  patriarchs  and  the 
Mosaic  law.  Then  follows  another,  De  Natale  Domini,  which 
gives  the  life  of  Christ  from  His  birth  to  His  ascension.  The 
second  series  treats  more  particularly  of  the  history  of  the  apos- 
tles, the  origin  of  monastic  life,  the  foundation  of  the  English 
church  under  Gregory  the  Great  and  its  expansion  in  the  days 
of  St.  Cuthbert.  The  didactic  element  is  less  pronounced  in 
the  second  part  than  in  the  first,  and,  while  the  first  part  seems 
to  have  been  intended  for  the  instruction  of  the  ignorant  in  the 
primary  facts  of  their  belief,  the  second  is  devoted  mainly 
to  the  exposition  of  the  teaching  of  the  church.  It  is  in  this 
second  series  that  we  find  the  famous  sermon  on  the  Eucharist 
which,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  expressing  in  the  unaccustomed 
English  tongue  the  undeveloped  and  indefinite  standpoint  of 
the  period,  has  led  to  much  controversy,  based  on  the  mistake 
of  reading  into  the  tenth  century  the  ideas  of  modern  times. 
The  reformers  gave  us  our  first  editions  of  this  sermon  in  the 
form  of  controversial  pamphlets. 

1  The  manuscripts  of  these  homiUes  vary  much  in  arrangement  of  matter, 
and  it  has  been  supposed  that  three  recensions  existed.  The  first  answers  to 
Thorpe's  edition  of  the  Cambridge  MS.,  in  which  the  two  parts  are  kept 
asunder  and  all  the  prefaces  are  retained,  although  other  matter  is  also  found. 
The  second  is  represented  by  such  MSS.  as  C.C.C.C.  i88,  which  has  only  the 
first  set  of  sermons,  no  prefaces,  some  sermons  divided  and  the  homily  on  the 
nativity  of  Our  Lady  following  that  on  the  birth  of  St.  John.  It  has  also  a 
new  sermon  for  a  confessor's  feast,  with  the  statement  that,  although  the 
author  had  written  it  for  another  (Aethelwold,  bishop  of  Winchester,  1007- 
10 1 3),  yet  he  was  to  have  a  copy  of  it  himself.  Hence  this  recension  dates 
after  1007.  Thirdly,  there  are  several  MSS.  in  which  both  parts  are  recast 
together  in  the  order  of  the  church  year,  with  additional  sermons. 


I30  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

The  chief  sources  of  these  sermons  were,  as  the  homilist 
himself  tells  us,  the  works  of  St.  Augustine,  St.  Jerome,  St. 
Gregory,  Bede,  Smaragdus  and  Haymo.  Forster  regards 
the  homilies  of  St.  Gregory  as  the  groundwork.  Additional 
sources  are  Alcuin,  Gregory  of  Tours  and  Rufinus,  the  Vitae 
Patrum  of  Ratramnus,  and  many  others.  The  English  song 
on  St.  Thomas  he  did  not  use,  and  he  rejected  St.  Paul's  vision 
in  favour  of  English  works  on  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  But 
all  these  are  treated  very  freely,  and,  although  Aelfric  was 
often  hampered  by  the  inadequacy  of  the  language  to  express 
abstract  ideas,  his  skill  as  a  teacher  is  especially  visible  in  the 
lucidity  with  which  he  explains  the  mysteries  of  their  religion 
to  his  ignorant  audience. 

The  treatment,  throughout,  is  highly  poetical;  alliteration 
abounds,  and  ten  of  the  homilies  are  in  a  rhythm  identified 
by  Einenkel  and  Trautmann  as  the  four-beat  verse  of  the  Old 
High  German  poet  Otfried,  though  the  reality  of  this  identifi- 
cation is  doubtful.  These  are  the  homilies  on  the  Passion,  the 
invention  of  the  cross,  Joshua's  victories,  St.  James  the  Just, 
Clement,  Alexander,  St.  Martin,  St.  Cuthbert,  Irenaeus  and 
that  on  love.  Of  the  three  senses  of  Scripture,  the  mystical 
is  most  delighted  in,  and  symbolism  is  prominent.  Similar 
feeling  and  outlook  is  reflected  in  most  Middle  English  homi- 
lies. Thus,  the  dead  skins  in  which  our  first  parents  were  clad 
after  the  fall  betokened  that  "they  were  then  mortal  who 
might  have  been  immortal,  if  they  had  kept  that  easy  com- 
mandment of  God."  Such  a  use,  in  the  lengths  to  which  it 
was  then  carried,  although  faithfully  reflecting  the  ideas  of 
the  early  and  subsequent  centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
is  strained  to  the  modern  mind  and  to  the  modern  reader. 
Aelfric's  imagination  is  better  seen  in  the  tender  and 
pathetic  passages  describing  the  slaughter  of  the  Innocents 
or  the  solitary  sojourn  of  St.  Cuthbert  on  the  island  of 
Lindisfarne. 

Aelfric's  next  works,  though  equally  significant  of  his  zeal 
as  a  teacher,  were  much  less  ambitious.  They  consisted  of 
a  Latin  grammar,  a  Latin-English  vocabulary  and  a  Latin 
colloquy  or  dialogue,  intended  to  instruct  the  novices  at 
Winchester  in  the  daily  speech  of  the  monastery.  The  Gram- 
mar, like  so  many  of  Aelfric's  works,  has  two  prefaces,  one  in 


The  Works  of  Aelfric  131 

English  and  one  in  Latin,  the  former  explaining  that  the  book 
is  based  on  the  greater  and  lesser  Priscian,  to  the  end  that,  when 
"tender  boys"  have  mastered  the  eight  parts  of  speech  in  the 
grammars  of  Donatus  (the  shorter  of  which  was  the  general 
medieval  text-book) ,  they  may  proceed  to  perfect  their  studies 
both  in  Latin  and  English;  while  the  latter  tells  how  the 
grammar  was  undertaken  after  the  two  books  of  eighty  sermons, 
because  grammar  is  the  key  to  the  understanding  of  those 
books.  He  insists,  also,  on  the  fact  that  the  maintenance 
of  religion  depends  on  the  encouragement  of  learning,  and 
reminds  his  readers  of  the  evil  years  before  Dunstan  and 
Aethelwold,  when  there  was  scarcely  an  English  priest  who 
could  write  or  even  read  a  Latin  letter. 

In  many  of  the  MSS.  which  contain  the  grammar  it  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  Latin-English  Vocabulary,  the  earliest  of  its  kind 
extant,  arranged  according  to  subjects,  not  alphabetically, 
and  largely  derived  from  the  etymologies  of  St.  Isidore.  That 
it  is  Aelfric's  is  proved  not  only  by  its  inclusion  in  the  manu- 
script containing  the  grammar,  without  any  pause  between 
them,  but  also  by  the  presence  of  many  words  characteristic 
of  his  vocabulary. 

The  Colloquy,  of  which  only  two  MSS.  exist,  is  exceedingly 
interesting  both  in  method  and  in  theme.  It  is  in  the  form 
of  a  conversation  between  the  teacher,  a  novice  and  a  number 
of  other  persons  representing  the  various  occupations  of  the 
day.  The  ploughman  tells  how  he  leads  his  oxen  to  the  field, 
while  the  neatherd,  like  Caedmon  in  Bede's  famous  story, 
takes  them  at  night  to  the  stable  and  stands  watching  over 
them  for  fear  of  thieves.  The  shepherd  guards  his  sheep  against 
the  wolf  and  makes  butter  and  cheese.  The  hunter  cap- 
tures harts  and  hares  and  is  rewarded  by  the  king  with  horses 
and  collars,  while  the  merchant  trades  in  palls  and  silks,  gold 
and  precious  stones,  strange  garments,  perfumes,  wine  and 
oil,  ivory,  brass,  tin,  glass  and  silver.  Last  of  all,  the  novice 
describes  the  division  of  his  day,  and  how,  if  he  sleeps  through 
the  bell  for  nocturnes,  his  comrades  awaken  him  with  rods. 
The  authorship  is  proved  by  a  note  in  one  of  the  MSS. : 
Hanc  sententiam  latini  sermonis  olim  Aelfrtcus  Abbas  composuit, 
qui  mens  fuit  magister,  sed  tamen  ego  Aelfricus  Bata  miiltas 
postea  huic  addidi  appendices.    The  colloquy  has  an  Old  English 


132  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

gloss,  which  is  certainly  not  the  work  of  Aelfric.  The  additions 
made  by  Aelfric's  disciple  to  the  text,  with  the  object  of  pro- 
\-iding  more  matter  for  practice,  in  every  way  destroy  the 
simplicity  and  neatness  of  the  original. 

In  one  MS.  of  Aelfric's  Grammar  we  meet  the  famous  ver- 
sion of  the  Distichs  of  Cato.  Hence,  there  has  been  a  certain 
tendency  to  ascribe  these  also  to  Aelfric.  They  are  marked  by 
clearness  of  expression  and  show  great  sense  of  adaptability. 
They  seem  to  be  a  combination  of  two  translations,  one  to 
distich  68,  the  other  to  the  end.  Two  of  the  distichs  are  taken 
from  Aelfric's  Deuteronomy,  and  the  fact  that  one  of  the 
three  MSS.  in  which  these  distichs  are  contained  also  includes 
the  Grammar,  both  works  being  written  in  one  hand,  places 
them,  at  any  rate,  in  close  connection  w4th  Aelfric's  school. 
It  is,  perhaps,  best  to  regard  them  as  the  result  of  Aelfric's 
influence. 

These  school-books  were  followed  in  996  or  997  by  a  third 
series  of  homilies,  The  Lives,  or  Passions  of  the  Saints.  These 
homilies,  also,  are  introduced  by  two  prefaces,  one  in  Latin 
explaining  the  origin  and  occasion  of  the  work,  while  the 
other  is  an  English  letter  addressed  to  the  ealdorman  Aethel- 
weard,  the  father  of  the  founder  of  Cerne  abbey. 

Thou  knowest,  beloved  [says  Aelfric  in  the  letter]  that  we 
translated  in  two  former  books  the  passions  and  lives  of  the  saints 
whom  the  English  nation  honours  with  festivals:  now,  it  has  seemed 
good  to  us  that  we  should  write  this  book  concerning  the  sufferings 
and  lives  of  the  saints  whom  monks  in  their  offices^  honour  among 
themselves. 

The  Latin  preface  further  states  that  only  such  lives  have 
been  chosen  from  the  Vitae  Patrum  as  are  suitable  for  narration 
to  the  lay  attendants  at  monastic  services. 

The  best  manuscript  of  this  work^  contains  thirty-three 
lives,  six  general  homilies  and  a  narrative  without  title  on  the 
legend  of  Abgarus,  thus,  like  the  two  previous  series,  comprising 
forty  sermons  in  all.     They  are  arranged  in  the  order  of  the 

'  The  MS.  is  Trin.  Coll.  Camb.  Rg.   17. 

2  i.e.  the  customary  Divine  Hours,  daily  chanted  by  the  monks  in  choir, 
a  public  service  which  the  secular  clergy  could  not,  of  course,  maintain. 
The  office-books  for  the  two,  probably,  also  differed. 

3  Cott.  Jul.  E.  vn. 


The  Works  of  Aelfric  133 

church  year,  beginning  with  an  address  on  the  nativity  of 
Christ,  ending  with  the  Hfe  of  St.  Thomas  (2 1  December)  and 
including  an  interesting  Rogation  Sunday  homily  on  auguries, 
witchcraft,  etc.,  and  one  (25  August)  in  which  we  have  an 
early  appearance  of  the  devil  of  the  later  mysteries. 

Besides  the  Vttae  Patnim,  which  is  the  only  source  men- 
tioned by  Aelfric  in  his  preface,  other  authorities  cited  are 
Ambrosius,  Augustine,  Jerome,  Terentian,  Abbo  of  Fleury, 
Bede  and  St.  Oswald.  The  story  of  St.  Swithun  is  partly 
based  on  a  letter  of  Lanferth,  but  owes  still  more  to  local 
tradition. 

These  homilies  exhibit  the  style  of  Aelfric  in  its  maturity; 
only  one,  that  on  the  Nativity,  is  in  prose ;  the  others  are  in  the 
loose  alliterative  rhythm  which  he  had  already  used  in  some 
of  his  previous  sermons.  In  the  long  run,  this  excessive 
recourse  to  alliteration  became  an  obstacle  to  clear  expression 
and  was  alien  to  the  true  development  of  prose ;  but  the  mono- 
tonous rhythm,  so  closely  akin  to  the  ballad  verse  of  the  com- 
mon people  was,  no  doubt,  very  attractive  to  lay  audiences. 
The  Lives,  since  they  deal  with  fact  and  not  theory,  throw  less 
light  on  Aelfric's  doctrine  than  the  earlier  homilies;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  provide  many  valuable  side-lights  on  con- 
temporary manners,  and  on  the  life  of  the  homilist  himself. 
The  most  interesting  of  all  are  those  of  the  English  saints,  St. 
Oswald,  St.  Edmund  and  St.  Swithun.  In  the  first  two  we 
see  portrayed  the  ideal  king  of  the  Old  English,  protector  and 
benefactor  of  his  people.  Oswald  breaks  in  pieces  the  silver 
dish  on  which  his  meat  is  ser\-ed,  and  commands  Aidan  to  dis- 
tribute the  pieces  among  the  suppliants  for  his  charit}^;  St. 
Edmund  after  his  subjects  have  been  slaughtered  by  the  Danes 
no  longer  desires  life.  "  This  I  wish  in  my  mind,  that  I  should 
not  be  left  alone  after  my  dear  thanes,  who  in  their  very  beds, 
with  their  wives  and  children,  have,  by  these  sea-goers,  sud- 
denly been  slain."  In  the  life  of  St.  Swithun  we  have  reminis- 
cences of  the  happy  time  under  king  Edgar,  "when  the  king- 
dom still  continued  in  peace,  so  that  no  fleet  was  heard  of  save 
that  of  the  folk  themselves  who  held  this  land." 

The  date  of  these  Lives  is  known  almost  to  the  very  year. 
They  are  not  dedicated,  like  the  others,  to  archbishop  Sigeric, 
because  he  had  died  in  995  ;  and  they  cannot  have  been  written 


134  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

earlier  than  996,  because  in  the  sermon  on  Ash  Wednesday 
Aethehvold,  who  was  canonised  in  that  year,  is  spoken  of  as 
"  the  holy  bishop  who  now  worketh  miracles."  But,  as  Aelfric 
says  that  he  borrowed  his  homily  on  St.  Edmund  from  Abbo 
of  Fleury's  life  of  that  saint  (986),  which  came  into  his  hands 
a  few  years  after  it  was  written,  they  cannot  well  be  much  later 
than  997. 

Appended  to  the  best  MSS.  of  the  Lives  of  the  Saints  is  an 
English  version  of  Alcuin's  Interrogationes  Sigewulfi  Presbyteri 
■in  Gene  sin.  It  begins  with  a  preface  and  introduction  on 
Alcuin  and  the  Latin  text,  which  consisted  of  a  series  of  cate- 
chetical answers  to  questions  on  Genesis,  asked  by  Alcuin's 
friend,  Sigewulf.  Then  follow  the  translated  interrogationes, 
abridged  from  a  hundred  and  seventy-eight  to  forty-eight 
essentials.  The  first  fifteen  are  on  the  moral  law  of  the  Crea- 
tor and  His  creatures;  the  next  five,  relating  to  the  material 
creation,  contain  an  insertion  on  the  planets,  derived  from  Bede 
by  Aelfric,  who  was  devoted  to  the  study  of  astronomy;  then 
come  four  on  the  manifestations  of  the  Trinity  in  nature. 
These  are  succeeded  by  a  series  on  man's  creation  in  the  divine 
image  and  his  end,  followed  by  others  on  the  origin  of  evil. 
Last  of  all  are  questions  on  the  ages  of  the  world,  and  the  whole 
is  concluded  by  a  creed  and  the  doxology.  Aelfric  is  nowhere 
stated  to  be  the  author,  but  the  similarity  of  the  translation  to 
his  acknowledged  work  in  style,  structure  and  rhythm  enables 
us  to  ascribe  it  to  him  w4th  some  confidence. 

Two  other  works,  closely  connected  in  style  and  theme,  also 
unsigned,  but  attributed  to  Aelfric  on  the  ground  of  style  and 
diction,  were  probably  composed  soon  after  the  Lives  of  the 
Saints.  These  are  a  translation  of  the  Hexameron  of  St.  Basil, 
and  a  version  of  the  De  Temporibus  of  Bede.  The  former, 
which  is  a  sermon  on  the  six  days  of  creation,  the  fall  of  the 
angels,  the  day  of  rest,  the  expulsion  from  Paradise  and  the 
atonement  of  Christ,  is  by  no  means  a  literal  translation,  but  is 
partly  original,  and  partly  derived  from  Bede's  Commentary  on 
Genesis.  It  is  found  in  the  best  MSS.,  refers  to  former  sermons 
and  has  Aelfric's  loose  alliterative  rhythm.  It  shows  a  close  re- 
semblance to  the  version  of  De  Temportbus,  which,  as  the  com- 
piler distinctly  states,  is  not  to  be  considered  a  homily.  It  is, 
indeed,  a  scientific  treatise,  adapted  from  Bede,  but  showing 


Aelfric's  Biblical  Translations  i35 

much  independent  learning  in  the  matter  of  astronomy,  the 
entry  on  the  feast  of  the  circumcision  telHng  how  the  ancient 
year-systems  began  and  were  reckoned.  It  is  almost  certainly 
Aelfric's,  and  was,  probably,  written  between  991  and  995. 

So  far,  all  Aelfric's  works  had  been  either  of  a  homiletic 
or  an  educational  character;  but  now,  at  the  request  of  the 
ealdorman  Aethelweard,  he  embarked  somewhat  reluctantly 
on  the  task  of  rendering  the  scriptures  into  the  vernacular. 
For  Aelfric  had  now  spent  the  best  years  of  his  life  in  the  serv-ice 
of  the  church  and  education,  bringing  nearer  to  his  people  the 
truths  and  sources  of  their  religion  and  morality.  He  was 
now  in  advanced  middle  life,  and  felt  keenly  that  these  labours 
withdrew  him  from  further  study  and  from  the  contemplation 
of  the  supernatural,  towards  which  his  age,  profession  and, 
above  all,  the  grievous  state  of  earthly  affairs,  that  seemed 
indeed  to  foretoken  the  end  of  the  world,  now  drew  him.  At 
the  same  time,  he  had  a  mass  of  homiletic  material  ready, 
and,  at  a  time  when  scarce  anyone  could  read,  he  felt  that 
the  living  voice  of  the  preacher  should  be  mainly  used  with  the 
people.  Hence,  we  find  his  version  of  the  Bible  esentially 
meant  to  be  preached  rather  than  read;  he  wrote  for  those 
who  should  teach  the  as  yet  unlettered  people.  The  version 
was  intended  to  be  of  the  nature  of  a  homily,  and  was  not  meant 
to  be  an  accurate  version  of  Holy  Writ.  Name  lists,  genealogies 
and  difhcult  passages  w^ere  left  out. 

Aelfric's  principal  achievement  in  this  department  was 
editing  the  paraphrase  of  the  first  seven  books  of  the  Bible. 
It  is  certain,  however,  that  his  hand  is  not  to  be  traced  through- 
out. In  the  prefatory  letter,  which  he  addressed  to  Aethel- 
weard, he  reminds  his  friend  how^  he  had  said  that  he  need  not 
labour  any  further  in  the  book  of  Genesis  than  the  story  of 
Isaac,  since  another  had  translated  it  from  that  point  to  the 
end.  In  the  MS.  in  the  Cambridge  University  Library  only 
chapters  i — xxiv  of  Genesis  are  given,  and  Dietrich  has  ob- 
served that  the  style  thenceforward  to  the  end  of  Leviticus  is 
essentially  different.  In  the  fourth  book  of  Moses  Aelfric's 
style  is  once  more  recognisable,  and  alliteration  again  occurs. 
It  is  possible  that  Aelfric  may  have  worked  over  another  trans- 
lation of  the  books  of  Numbers  and  Deuteronomy;  but  he  himself 
tells  us,  in  De  Veteri  et  de  Novo  Testamento,  that  he  had  trans- 


13*^  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

lated  Joshua  and  Judges  at  the  request  of  Aethelweard.  The 
book  of  Judges  was  added  afterward ;  it  was  probably  intended 
originally  to  be  included,  like  the  homily  on  the  Maccabees, 
in  the  series  of  Saints'  Lives.  It  is  composed  entirely  in  Aelfric's 
usual  rhythm,  and  ends  with  a  short  notice  of  the  good  kings 
Alfred,  Aethelstan  and  Edgar,  who  put  to  flight  the  Danes  and 
fostered  religion  and  learning.  With  the  exception  of  Daniel 
the  work  consists  merely  of  extracts.  Since  the  Lives  were 
written  in  996,  and  other  homiletic  work  had  followed,  these 
paraphrases  seem  to  date  from  997,  and,  in  their  completed 
state,  from  998.  It  is  important  to  note  in  them  that  Aelfric 
merely  signs  himself  as  monk.  They  were,  probably,  the  last 
work  done  for  Aethelweard,  who  is  not  heard  of  after  999. 
But  Aelfric's  close  friendship  w^ith  his  son  continued  and  bore 
important  fruit  in  later  years. 

Three  other  biblical  paraphrases  or  homilies  may  be  traced 
to  Aelfric.  In  his  tractate  on  the  Old  Testament  he  observes 
that  he  formerly  made  in  English  a  discourse  or  short  exposi- 
tion of  Job,  and  also  that  he  had  turned  into  English  the  book 
of  Esther.  The  MS.  of  Job  is  lost,  but  a  copy  printed  by  LTsle 
in  1638  shows  unmistakable  signs  of  Aelfric's  workmanship, 
and  the  theme  resembles  that  of  his  other  works;  thus,  a  pas- 
sage on  Antichrist  is  strongly  reminiscent  of  some  sentences 
in  the  preface  to  the  first  series  of  homilies,  and  the  whole 
treatment  corresponds  to  that  of  the  thirty-fifth  homily  of  the 
second  series.  Esther,  which  also  exists  only  in  L'Isle's  tran- 
script, seems  originally  to  have  belonged  to  the  Saints'  Lives.  It 
is  a  series  of  extracts  in  Aelfric's  customary  alliterative  rhythm. 

Aelfric  also  mentions,  in  the  same  place,  a  work  on  the 
apocryphal  book  of  Judith,  but  without  claiming  the  author- 
ship. "  It  is  also,"  he  says,  "  arranged  in  English  m  our  manner, 
as  an  example  to  you  men,  that  you  should  defend  your  land 
with  weapons  against  the  hostile  host."  These  words  were 
formerly  supposed  to  refer  to  the  beautiful  poem  Judith,  which 
is  found  in  a  fragmentary  state  in  the  Beowulf  MS. ;  but 
Assmann  has  shown  that  an  Old  English  version  of  the  story 
contained  in  two  MSS.^  has  all  the  characteristics  of  Aelfric's 
style.  Moreover,  it  contains  many  passages  parallel  with 
others  in  his  preface  to  the  Old  Testatment. 

>   Corpus  Christi  Coll.  303  and  Cott.  0th.  B.  10. 


Aelfric's  Minor  Works  i37 

About  the  year  998,  Aelfric  was  asked  by  bishop  Wulfsij^e 
of  Sherborne  to  compose  a  pastoral  for  him.  It  was  written  in 
the  bishop's  name,  and,  after  a  short  preface  addressed  to 
Wulfsige,  adomonishing  him  to  reprove  his  clergy  more  fre- 
quently for  their  neglect  of  the  ecclesiastical  canons,  it  treats 
of  celibacy,  clerical  duties,  synods  and  the  Benedictine  rule, 
ending  with  a  warning  against  clerical  attendance  at  lykewakes. 
This  concludes  the  first  part.  The  second  is  entirely  concerned 
with  the  rite  of  the  presanctified  and  the  proper  length  of  time 
for  the  reservation  of  the  sacrament,  and  expresses  the  same 
views  that  Aelfric  had  already  advanced  in  the  homilies, 
based  upon  St.  Augustine  (probably  the  Enarratio  in  Psalm 
xcviii) ,  through  the  famous  Ratramnus,  opponent  ^f  Pascha- 
sius  Radbertus,  abbot  of  Corby.  It  thus  shows  Aelfric  as  a 
keen  follow^er  of  contemporary  "science"  abroad.  Aelfric 
sided,  seemingly,  against  Radbertus ;  his  opinions  are  nowhere 
exactly  reflected  to-day,  though  the  obscure  Augustinian 
"spiritual,"  rendered  in  English  "gastl/ce,"  did  the  good 
ser\dce  of  giving  us  editions  of  him  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
when  he  was  quoted  by  Foxe  and  others.  It  is  an  ana- 
chronism to  impute  any  fully  developed  modern  opinion  to 
the  tenth  century. 

About  the  same  time  must  be  dated  Aelfric's  Advice  to  a 
Spiritual  Son,  translated  from  St.  Basil's  work  with  the  same 
title.  The  author  is  not  expressly  named,  but,  from  internal 
evidence,  we  know  that  he  was  a  Benedictine  monk,  and  that 
he  had  already  written  about  Basil.  It  speaks  of  St.  Basil's 
Hexameron  in  almost  the  very  words  Aelfric  used  earlier;  it 
contains  passages  on  St.  Basil  closely  resembling  some  in  the 
Interrogationes  Sigewulfl  Presbyteri;  and,  inclusive  of  the 
preface,  it  is  composed  in  Aelfric's  loose  rhythm.  The  subject 
is  the  admonition  of  a  spiritual  father  to  his  son  to  lead  a 
righteous  life. 

In  a  manuscript  in  the  Bodleian, ^  under  the  general  heading 
Sermoncs  Liipi,  occurs  a  homily  On  the  sevenfold  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which,  owing  to  its  presence  in  that  manuscript, 
was  formerly  ascribed  to  Wulfstan.  But  that  Aelfric  com- 
posed a  homily  on  this  subject  we  know  from  his  own  state- 
ment 2  :  "Sevenfold  gifts  he  giveth  yet  to  mankind,  concerning 

'   Junius  99. 

2  De  Veteri  et  de  Novo  Testamento,  Preface. 


138  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

which  I  wrote  formerly  in  a  certain  other  writing  in  the  English 
speech."  This  homily  is  seventh  from  the  superscription, 
which  only  seems  to  apply  to  those  immediately  following  it 
(two  in  number).  We  are,  therefore,  as  Napier  in  his  work  on 
Wulfstan  pointed  out,  justified  in  rejecting  the  ascription  of  the 
seventh  homily  to  Wulfstan,  and  it  may  be  by  Aelfric. 

In  1005  Aelfric  was  called  from  Wessex  to  Mercia.  The 
thane  Aethelmaer,  who  had  formerly  invited  him  to  Cerne, 
and  for  whom  so  many  of  his  works  had  been  composed,  had 
recently  acquired  two  estates  in  Oxfordshire,  which  he,  in 
turn,  presented  to  his  newly  founded  abbey  of  Eynsham. 
These  are  interesting  on  account  of  their  connection  with  the 
hero  of  ^laldon,  himself  a  patron  of  learning,  who  had  fallen 
some  fourteen  years  before,  fighting  against  the  Danes.  ^ 
Hither  Aethelmaer  retired  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  and  hither 
he  summoned  Aelfric  as  first  abbot.  The  monastery  followed 
the  Benendictine  rule,  and  it  was  for  the  instruction  of  its 
inmates  that  Aelfric  wrote,  soon  after  his  instalment  there, 
the  Latin  Letter  to  the  Monks  of  Eynsham,  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made.  His  object  was  to  give  an  account 
of  the  rule  as  practised  at  Winchester,  and  he  says  that  the 
source  of  his  information  is  bishop  Aethelwold's  De  Con- 
suetudine  Monachorum,  by  which  title,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  he  refers,  in  all  probability,  to  Aethelwold's  Regularis 
Concordia. 

It  is  in  the  preface  to  this  letter  that  Aelfric  speaks  of  the 
years  spent  by  him  in  the  school  of  Aethelwold,  and,  as  a  further 
acknowledgment  of  the  debt  he  owed  his  great  master,  he 
composed  soon  afterwards,  in  Latin,  his  Vita  Aethelwoldi.  In 
the  preface  to  this  Life,  Aelfric  calls  himself  abbot  and  alumnus 
of  Winchester,  and,  greeting  Kenulph,  bishop  of  Winchester, 
and  the  brethren  of  the  monastery  there,  he  says  that  it  now 
seems  right  to  him  to  recall  to  men's  memory  some  of  the  deeds 
of  their  father  and  great  teacher,  St.  Aethelwold  (d.  984), 
who  had  been  dead  for  twenty  years.  Since  Kenulph  was  not 
appointed  to  the  see  till  1006,  and  died  either  the  same  year 
or  the  next,  the  Life  must  have  been  finished  about  this  time. 
Of  the  two  recensions  of  the  Life,  one,  by  Aelfric  alone,  shows 
his  usual  characteristics;  the  other  is  apparently  Aelfric's  life 

'  See  p.  144. 


Aelfric's  Later  Works  139 

''written  over"  by  Wulfstan,  precentor  of  Winchester,  with 
additional  matter  concerning  posthumous  miracles. 

Besides  these  Latin  works,  in  the  first  year  of  his  office  as 
abbot,  Aelfric  wrote  an  English  letter  addressed  to  a  thane 
called  Wulfgeat,  "at  Ylmandun,"  a  place  which  has  been 
identified  with  Ilmington,  about  thirty  miles  from  Eynsham. 
It  begins  with  a  six-line  address  to  Wulfgeat,  in  which  Aelfric 
refers  to  former  English  writings,  lent  to  the  thane,  and  to  his 
promise  to  lend  him  more.  Since  he  calls  himself  abbot,  and 
since  in  1006  Wulfgeat  fell  into  disgrace  and  lost  all  his  posses- 
sions, being  supplanted  by  Eadric  the  famous  traitor,  the  letter 
was  evidently  written  in  1005  or  1006. 

It  was  probably  two  or  three  years  after  this  that  Aelfric 
composed  his  treatise  on  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments — 
De  Veteri  et  de  Novo  Testamento.  It  begins  with  a  long  address 
to  Sigferth  or  Sigweard,  a  thane  living  at  Easthealon,  the 
modem  Asthall,  which  is  only  twelve  miles  distant  from  Eyn- 
sham. Aelfric  begins  by  saying  that  Sigferth  had  ^^ery  often 
asked  him  for  English  books,  but  that  he  would  not  grant  his 
request  till  the  thane  had  proved  his  sincerity  by  good  deeds. 
But  since  he  had  complained  to  Aelfric  that  he  could  not 
obtain  his  works,  the  abbot  had  written  this  especially  for  him. 
The  tractate,  which  is  based  on  St.  Augustine's  De  Doctrina 
Christiana,  is,  in  substance,  a  popular  introduction  to  the  con- 
tents of  the  Bible,  and  falls  into  two  parts.  The  first,  on  the 
Old  Testament,  is  especially  valuable  because,  in  the  course  of 
his  summary  of  the  various  books,  Aelfric  gives  the  particulars 
to  which  we  have  already  referred,  concerning  his  translations 
from  the  Bible.  The  second  part,  on  the  New  Testament, 
begins  with  the  story  of  John  the  Baptist,  treats  of  the  four 
Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  epistles  and  the  book  of 
Revelation,  and,  after  certain  allegories,  some  words  on  the 
duties  of  the  three  stations  of  life — workers,  praying  folk  and 
fighters — and  a  description  of  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus, 
ends  with  an  admonition  against  the  Teutonic  habit  of  setting 
folk  to  drink  beyond  their  measure — a  native  pleasantry  which, 
it  seems,  Sigferth  had  endeavoured  to  impose  upon  Aelfric 
when  visited  by  him. 

It  was  to  the  same  nobleman  that  Aelfric,  about  the  same 
time,  addressed  his  letter  on  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  for 


I40  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

Sigferth  entertained  among  his  household  an  anchorite  who 
affirmed  that  the  marriage  of  mass  priests  (i.e.  full  priests  as 
distinguished  from  "preostas,"  a  generic  name  including  dea- 
cons and  minor  orders  as  well)  was  permissible.  But  Ael- 
fric,  though  loth  to  differ  from  this  "  good  friend,"  if  he  were  a 
God-fearing  man,  could  not  refrain  from  pointing  out  that  the 
earlier  usage  of  the  church  required  celibacy  from  all  the  clergy, 
and  the  letter  is  a  prolonged  argument  on  this  theme, 

Aelfric's  last  important  work  was  a  pastoral  letter  written 
for  Wulfstan,  who,  from  1002  to  1023,  was  archbishop  of  York, 
and,  till  10 16,  held  also  the  see  of  Worcester,  being  thus  a 
neighbour  of  the  abbot  of  Eynsham.  It  falls  into  two  parts, 
of  which  the  first  speaks  of  the  three  periods  of  the  law,  and 
goes  on  to  the  theme  already  treated  in  the  letters  to  Wulfsige 
and  Sigferth.  The  subject  of  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  is 
reviewed  from  a  historical  standpoint,  and  the  letter  further 
admonishes  the  clergy  on  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist,  as 
their  great  function,  and  treats  of  the  seven  grades  of  holy 
orders.  The  second  part  deals  with  the  use  of  the  holy  oils 
and  the  administration  of  the  last  sacraments  to  the  dying. 
Mass  was  not  to  be  said  in  laymen's  houses,  nor  churches  used 
for  worldly  purposes.  The  work  must  have  been  composed 
after  10 14,  since  it  contains  a  quotation  from  Aethelred's  laws 
of  that  date;  and,  probably,  before  10 16,  when  Wulfstan 's  con- 
nection with  Worcester  came  to  an  end.  The  epistles  were 
written  in  Latin  and  translated  into  English  by  Aelfric  himself, 
at  Wulfstan's  request,  in  the  following  year. 

Aelfric's  life  was  now  drawing  to  a  close.  The  exact  date 
of  his  death  is  not  known,  but  he  died,  probably,  soon  after 
1020.  His  last  years  were  passed  in  times  not  favourable 
for  literar}^  work.  They  were  eventful  years  for  England, 
for  they  witnessed  the  Danish  sack  of  Canterbury  in  loii, 
the  murder  of  St.  Alphege  by  the  Danes  at  Greenwich,  the 
flight  of  Aethelred  before  Sweyn,  the  strife  of  Edmund  Ironside 
and  Canute  and  Canute's  final  triumph. 

Aelfric  was  not  only  the  greatest  prose  writer,  he  was  also 
the  most  distinguished  English- writing  theologian,  in  his  own 
time,  and  for  five  centuries  afterwards.  Yet  he  was  in  no  sense 
an  original  thinker;  his  homilies,  as  he  frankly  states,  are  bor- 
rowed from  others,  and  in  them  he  reflects  the  thought  of  the 


Aelfric  and  Wulfstan  ui 

west,  especially  the  teachings  of  St.  Augustine  its  great  Father. 
His  chief  object  was  to  convey  to  the  simple  and  unlearned 
the  teaching  of  the  Fathers;  and  in  this  he  was  pre-eminently 
successful.  If  Dunstan  and  Aethelwold  first  kindled  the  flame, 
it  was  Aelfric  who,  through  dark  years  of  strife  and  warfare, 
when  men's  thoughts  were  absorbed  by  the  pressing  anxieties  of 
their  daily  life,  kept  the  lamp  alight  and  reminded  them  of 
spiritual  ideals.  His  influence  lasted  long  after  his  death, 
as  is  shown  by  the  many  late  manuscripts  of  his  writings,  some 
of  which  date  from  the  twelfth  century ;  and  if  it  had  not  been 
for  his  faithful,  modest  labour,  the  difficulties  of  Lanfranc  and 
iVnselm  would  have  been  even  greater  than  they  were. 

As  he  himself  tells  us,  he  took  Alfred  for  his  model,  but,  in 
ease  and  grace,  his  style  far  surpasses  that  of  his  great  prede- 
cessor.    Both  Aelfric  and  Wulfstan  write  and  translate  in  a 
free  style,  but  it  is  no  longer  the  gossiping  colloquialism  of 
Alfred.     English  had  become  a  literary  language,  polished  in 
the  cloisters  with  long  use  as  a  vehicle    for  translation  and 
original  works.    In  the  cloisters  Latin  was  still  a  living  language, 
and     hence    Latin     constructions    became     common.       The 
necessity  of  having  to  express  difficult  ideas  in  a  form  intelligible 
to  ignorant  men  helped  Aelfric  in  his  choice  of  words  and  in  his 
effort  after  lucidity,  while,  with  the  instinct  of  a  true  teacher, 
he  refused  to  be  led  astray  by  the  example  of  Latin  syntax 
and  preferred  simple  constructions.     Unfortunately,  as  time 
went  on,  he  deferred  more  and  more  to  the  preferences  of  his 
audience,  and  debased  his  prose  by  throwing  it  into  the  rhyth- 
mical alliterative  form  so  popular  with  the  vulgar.     Perhaps 
it  was  felt  that  a  more  pompous,  rhetorical  style  than  that  of 
ordinary  speech  should  be  used  in  treating  of  solemn  themes. 
However  that  may  be,  the  later,  florid  manner  which  Aelfric 
affected  in  the  Saints'  Lives,  and  in  some  of  his  other  treatises, 
is  distinctly  inferior  to  that  of  the  first  two  series  of  homilies. 
His  prose  is  seen  at  its  best  in  simple  narrative,  and,  to  appre- 
ciate the  difficulties  under  which  he  laboured,  the  homilies 
on  the  Eucharist  and  on  the  Creation  (both  philosophic  sub- 
jects) should  be  read  together.     The  first  is  confused  and  com- 
plex, compared  with  the  flowing  ease  of  the  great  Father  upon 
whose  work  it  was  based  and,  obviously,  the  language  was 
not,  at  this  time,  equal  to  abstruse  metaphysical  speculation. 


142  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

The  second,  which  deals  with  a  simpler  subject,  is  clear  and 
comprehensive.  Aelfric  shows  power  in  his  treatment  of  pathos 
as  well  as  of  philosophy,  when  both  are  simple;  as  may  be  seen 
in  the  homilies  on  the  Holy  Innocents  and  on  the  Creation. 
But,  whatever  his  theme,  he  is  always  logical  and  persuasive, 
and  the  "sw^eet  reasonableness"  of  his  methods  especially 
distinguishes  his  sermons  from  the  fiery  denunciations,  and  the 
direct,  strenuous  language,  of  his  contemporary  and  friend 
archbishop  Wulfstan,  who  goes  to  the  point  without  any  of 
the  abstract  moralising  to  be  found  in  Aelfric.  Wulfstan 
delivers  his  Christian  doctrine  as  a  statement  of  facts,  and  his 
phrases  have  a  legal  smack  about  them ;  while  Aelfric  loves  what 
has  some  philosophy  in  it,  for  even  his  simplicity  is  often  pro- 
found. In  a  word,  Wulfstan  is  a  judge  and  legalist,  Aelfric  a 
contemplative  student. 

This  difference  in  tone  is  explained  partly  by  temperament, 
partly  by  the  circumstances  of  their  lives.  Aelfric,  following 
the  quiet  industrious  routine  of  duty  behind  the  shelter  of  the 
abbey  walls,  heard  only  the  rumours  of  the  strife  that  raged 
without;  Wulfstan,  absorbed  in  practical,  political  life,  was 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  anguish  and  the  practical  needs 
of  the  time.  He  was  already  bishop  of  Worcester  when,  in 
I002,  he  was  appointed,  also,  to  the  see  of  York.  In  1014  he 
assisted  in  the  compilation  of  the  law^s  of  Aethelred,  drawn  up 
at  the  synod  of  Eynsham;  he  died  on  28  May,  1023.  Thus,  his 
period  of  office  coincided  with  that  of  the  most  disastrous 
and  devastating  invasions  of  the  country. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  determine  exactly  which  of  the 
homilies  in  the  Bodleian^  are  really  Wulfstan's.  Owing  to  the 
superscription  at  the  beginning  of  the  first.  Hie  incipiunt 
sermones  Litpi,  all  were  ascribed  to  him  by  Wanley.  Napier 
has  pointed  out,  however,  that  this  heading  was,  probably, 
taken  from  another  manuscript  of  the  archbishop's  sermons, 
which  were  copied  into  a  miscellaneous  collection  containing 
many  others,  of  which  the  authorship  is  uncertain,  or  certainly 
not  his.  Of  the  fifty-three  homilies  in  the  Bodleian  MS.  only 
five  are  indisputably  by  Wulfstan.  There  are  two  immediately 
following  the  superscription,   dealing  with  the  Bible  story,^ 

*  Junius  99.  ^Wanley  i,  Napier  2. 


Aelfric  and  Wulfstan  143 

and  with  the  catholic  faith  1 ;  next  follows  a  sermon2  of  which 
only  parts  are  by  Wulfstan,  and  which  Napier,  rejecting  the 
passages  he  considers  unauthentic,  has  divided  into  four  por- 
tions-^ :  on  the  Christian  life,  on  Christ's  death,  on  Christ  as  the 
true  friend  and  on  the  duties  of  Christians.  Then  comes  the 
famous  Address  to  the  English'^,  and  last  of  all  a  short  exhorta- 
tion ^  with  the  superscription  Sermo  Liipi,  on  the  duty  of  Chris- 
tians, full  of  metrical  fragments,  which  can  be  separated  from 
the  context  and  show  signs  of  sung  verse  united  by  alliteration 
or  assonance.  Of  the  remaining  homilies,  some,  which  occur 
in  the  same  order  in  various  manuscripts,  are,  possibly,  by 
Wulfstan ;  many,  such  as  the  paraphrase  of  the  poem  called  Be 
Domes  Daege,  and  The  Address  of  the  Soul  to  the  Body,  must  be 
entirely  rejected ;  while  others^  appear  also  among  the  Blickling 
Homilies  or  the  works  of  Aelfric.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the 
homilies  referred  to  above  as  possibly  by  Wulfstan  are  very 
similar  in  phraseology  to  the  Old  English  laws  drawn  up  at 
the  council  of  Eynsham  in  1014 ;  and,  as  we  know  from  his  own 
statement  that  Wulfstan  was  responsible  for  the  Latin  para- 
phrase of  these  statutes,  it  is  probable  the  English  version  was 
his  also. 

Of  the  five  homilies  which  certainly  can  be  ascribed  to 
Wulfstan,  the  most  powerful  is  the  one  entitled  in  the  Bodleian 
MS.  Sermo  Lupi  ad  Anglos  quando  Dani  maxime  persecuti  sunt 
eos,  quod  fuit  in  die  Aethelredi  regis,  to  which  another  MS.  adds 
more  explicitly  that  this  was  in  anno  millesimo  xiiii  ah  incarna- 
tione  Domini  nostri  Jesus  Christi,  and  another,  in  anno  millesimo 
viii.  But  it  is,  indeed,  applicable  to  any  year  in  the  ill-fated 
reign  of  Aethelred.  The  vices,  evil  deeds  and  cowardice  of  the 
English  are  scourged  with  a  heavy  hand;  the  English  are 
likened  to  the  Britons  whom  they  have  turned  out,  and  are 
threatened  w4th  the  same  fate.  The  archbishop's  passionate 
patriotism  breaks  forth  in  the  burning  words  with  which  he 
describes  the  desolation  and  demoralisation  of  the  people,  scat- 
tered like  frightened  sheep  before  the  onset  of  the  heathen, 
without  a  single  leader  to  rally  them  to  resistance.  Villages 
are  destroyed  by  fire,  the  new  ministers  are  stripped  of  their 

»  Wanley  2,  Napier  3.  2  Wanley4.  ^  ^Japier  xix,  xx,  xxi,  xxii. 

4  Wanley  5,  Napier  t,t,.         5  Wanley  6,  Napier  34.         «■  XLix,  liv  and  LV. 


144  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

holy  things;  father  is  turned  against  son  and  brother  against 
brother;  even  the  ancient  bond  of  thane  and  thrall  becomes 
loosened  in  this  time  of  universal  disintegration.  And,  like 
some  Hebrew  prophet,  AVulfstan  refuses  to  believe  that  the 
Almighty  would  have  laid  so  heavy  an  affliction  upon  an 
innocent  people ;  he  sees  in  the  crimes  of  the  nation  the  cause, 
rather  than  the  effect,  of  the  long  strife ;  this  evil  has  come  upon 
them  for  their  sins;  they  have  provoked  the  wrath  of  Heaven, 
and  unless  they  repent  and  reform,  a  worse  evil  shall  befall 
them.  But  there  is  still  room  for  penitence,  and  the  sermon 
ends  on  a  gentler  note : 

"Let  us  creep  to  Christ,"  says  the  preacher,  "and  call  upon  Him 
unceasingly  with  trembling  hearts,  and  deserve  His  mercy;  let  us 
love  God  and  His  laws,  and  faithfully  perform  what  our  sponsors 
promised  for  us  at  our  baptism.  Let  us  order  rightly  our  words 
and  our  deeds,  and  keep  faith  with  one  another  without  guile, 
and  frequently  think  upon  the  great  judgment  that  awaits  us  all; 
and  protect  ourselves  against  the  flaming  fire  of  hell;  and  let  us 
earn  for  ourselves  the  glory  and  the  joy  which  God  has  prepared 
for  those  who  do  His  will  on  earth.     So  God  help  us.     Amen." 

Here  and  there  are  traces  of  metrical  character,  sometimes 
assonant,  sometimes  alliterative,  which  may  have  been  part  of 
some  pessimistic  folk-ballads  on  England's  downfall. 

Wulfstan's  style  is  much  more  vehement  than  that  of 
Aelfric.  He  is  preacher  rather  than  teacher,  appealing  more 
^  to  the  emotions  than  to  the  reason  of  his  hearers,  fertile  in 
concrete  illustrations,  and  avoiding  the  subtle  symbolism  in 
which  Aelfric  delighted.  His  sentences,  though  not  deficient 
in  lucidity,  are  very  long;  synonym  is  heaped  on  synonym  and 
clause  upon  clause ;  yet  the  chanting  sense  of  rhythm  is  always 
present ;  epithets  are  balanced,  and  the  effect  is  often  heightened 
by  the  use  of  antithesis.  But,  as  might  be  expected  from  one 
whose  life  was  so  much  absorbed  by  the  administration  of 
public  affairs,  his  style  is  that  of  the  rhetorician  rather  than 
of  the  philosopher. 

In  addition  to  the  homilies  already  mentioned,  several 
isolated  tracts  of  the  same  nature  by  unknown  authors  sur\dve. 
Among  these  may  be  noted  the  Life  of  St.  Gtithlac  and  of  St. 
Swithun,  the  former  translated  from  the  Latin  by  Felix  of 


Wulfstan  and  Byrhtferth  145 

Croyland,  and,  on  the  ground  that  one  MS.^  is  in  the  same 
handwriting  as  Aelfric's  Pentateuch 2,  often  attributed  to  him; 
the  latter  a  mere  fragment,  which  is  also  supposed  by  some 
scholars  to  be  his.  There  are  also  the  Life  of  St.  Neot,  and  of 
St.  Mary  of  Egypt,  which  may,  possibly,  be  his. 

Another  renowned  contemporary  of  Aelfric  was  the  monk 
Byrhtferth,  whose  writings  are  chiefly  concerned  with  mathe- 
matics. He  lived  about  980,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  pupil 
of  Abbo.  Leland  says  he  was  called  Thorneganus.  He  seems 
to  have  known  some  of  Dunstan's  earlier  disciples,  and  to  have 
lived  at  Canterbury  for  a  time.  His  reputation  as  an  English 
writer  rests  on  his  Handhoc  or  Enchiridion,  a  miscellany  pre- 
served in  only  one  MS.^  It  begins  with  a  descriptive  calendar, 
and  then  follow  short  treatises  of  a  mathematical  and  philologi- 
cal nature.  After  these  come  three  theological  tracts,  on  The 
Ages  of  the  World,  The  Loosing  of  Satan  and  The  Seven  Sins. 
The  collection  concludes  with  two  homilies,  one  entitled  Am- 
monitio  Amisi  paet  is  freondlic  mynegung'^,  and  the  other  on  the 
four  cardinal  virtues.  The  sermon  on  the  loosing  of  Satan 
seems  to  indicate  that  it  was  composed  towards  the  close  of 
the  tenth  century,  and  this  date  is  corroborated  by  what  other 
information  we  possess  about  the  author. 5 

Like  Aelfric,  Byrhtferth  was  a  product  of  St.  Aethelwold's 
monastic  reform,  but  his  scientific  leanings  differentiated 
him  remarkably  from  the  greater  homilists. 

Besides  these  homilies  and  scientific  treatises,  there  were 
composed,  during  the  tenth  century,  three  English  versions 
of  the  Gospels,  known  as  the  Lindisfarne,  Rushworth  and  West 
Saxon  glosses.  The  Latin  text  of  the  Lindisfarne  Gospels '^j 
contained  in  a  magnificent  manuscript,  adorned  with  beau- 
tiful illuminations,  was  written  about  the  year  700;  and  it  was 
not  till  at  least  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  when  it  had 
been  removed  to  Chest er-le-Street,  near  Durham,  for  safety, 
that  the  interlinear  North  Northumbrian  gloss  was  added  by 

'  Cott.  Vesp.  D.  XXI.  2  Bod.  Laud.  E.  19. 

3  Oxf.  Ash.  328.  *  reminder. 

5  Besides  these  English  treatises  Byrhtferth  was  also  responsible  for 
Latin  commentaries  on  Bede's  De  Tcinporum  Ratione  and  De  Natura  Rerum  ; 
two  essays  entitled  De  Principiis  Mathematicis  and  De  Institiitione  Mona- 
chortim  and  a  Vita  Diistani. 

6  Cott.  Xero  D.  iv. 


h6  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

Aldred,  a  priest  of  that  place.  The  gloss  gives  many  variant 
English  equivalents  for  the  Latin  words.  Aldred  himself, 
however,  seems  to  have  written  only  the  latter  part  of  the 
gloss,  that  beginning  at  St.  John  v,  lo,  in  a  new  hand, 
though  the  earlier  portion  was,  probably,  made  under  his 
supen'ision.  The  gloss  is  of  the  greatest  importance  from 
a  philological  point  of  view,  since  it  is  our  most  valuable 
authority  for  the  Northumbrian  dialect  of  the  middle  of  the 
tenth  century. 

Equally  interesting  are  the  Rushworth  Gospels.  ^  The 
J>  y^  Latin  text,  which  differs  very  slightly  from  that  of  the  Lindis- 
farne  MS.,  was,  perhaps,  written  in  the  eighth  century,  while 
the  gloss  dates  from  the  second  half  of  the  tenth.  It  falls  into 
two  distinct  portions,  the  first  of  which,  in  the  dialect  of  North 
Mercia,  was  written  by  Farman,  a  priest  of  Harewood,  seven 
miles  north-east  of  Leeds.  This  portion,  which  includes  the 
gospel  of  St.  Matthew  and  part  of  chapters  i  and  ii  of  St.  Mark, 
begins  as  a  gloss,  and,  later,  becomes  again  a  gloss,  but,  in  the 
main,  it  is  a  fairly  free  version  of  the  Latin  text.  The  second 
part,  in  a  dialect  which  has  been  called  South  Northumbrian 
by  Lindeiof,  was  written  by  Owun,  and  shows,  very  strongly, 
the  influence  of  the  Lindisfarne  glosses,  which  must  have  been 
before  the  writer  as  he  worked,  since  he  often  goes  astray  from 
the  Latin  text  to  follow  Aldred 's  version.  It  seems  probable 
that  Farman,  who  was  a  good  Latin  scholar,  had  made  his 
gloss  as  far  as  St.  Mark  ii,  15,  when  the  Lindisfarne  MS.  came 
into  his  hands.  He  then  entrusted  the  task  to  Owun,  who 
was  a  less  accomplished  linguist,  and  w^ho,  whenever  he  was 
confronted  by  a  difficulty,  resorted  to  the  Lindisfarne  gloss  for 
its  solution.  It  may  be  that  Farman  chose  Owun  as  one 
knowing  a  dialect  closely  akin  to  that  of  Lindisfarne. 

There  also  exists  in  six  MSS.  a  West  Saxon  version  of  the 
Gospels,  which,  owing  to  a  note  in  one  MS. 2 — ego  Aelfricus 
scripsi  himc  libriuni  in  monasterio  Ba^honio  et  dedi  Brihtwoldo 
preposito — was  formerly  ascribed  to  Aelfric  of  Eynsham.  If  we 
suppose  this  Brihtwold  to  be  the  same  as  the  bishop  of  that 

«  So  called  because  the  MS.  in  which  they  are  contained  was  formerly 
owned  by  J.  Rushworth,  clerk  of  the  House  of  Commons  during  the  Long 
Parliament. 

2  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge,  cxl. 


Legends  of  the  Holy  Rood  i47 

name,  who  held  the  see  of  Sherborne  from  1006-1046,  as  he  is 
here  called  prepositus,  we  may  conclude  that  the  Corpus  MS. 
was  written  before  1006.  It  certainly  belongs  to  the  first 
quarter  of  the  eleventh  century  and  is  not  of  Aelfric's  author- 
ship, for  it  in  no  wise  agrees  with  his  description  of  his  own 
work  on  the  New  Testatment.  He  tells  us  that  he  had  trans- 
lated pieces  from  the  New  Testament;  but  this  is  a  full  version. 
The  other  MSS.  are  later,  and  one  of  them,  in  the  Cambridge 
University  Library,  contains  also  the  apocryphal  Gospel  of 
Nicodemus,  which  provided  legendary  material  for  later  me- 
dieval homilists  and  for  the  growth  of  the  Arthurian  legend 
in  respect  of  Joseph  of  Arimathaea. 

The  early  Christian  legends,  indeed,  and  more  particularly 
such  as  mark  the  continuance  of  Jewish  traditions  and  the 
gradual  diffusion  of  Christianity  in  the  east,  seem  to  have  had 
a  special  attraction  for  English  writers  of  this  period.  There 
are  two  legends  connected  with  the  Holy  Rood — one  w^ith  the 
growth  of  its  wood,  the  other  with  the  history  of  the  cross  after 
the  crucifixion.  The  legend  of  the  Holy  Rood  itself  is  the 
same  as  the  original  story  of  Cynewulf's  poems.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  St.  Helena  was  reputed  to  be  of  British 
origin. 

The  oldest  English  version  of  the  legend  of  the  growth 
of  the  wood  is  found  in  a  MS.  in  the  Bodleian  (343),  which 
contains  also  fifty-one  homilies  by  Aelfric.  The  manuscript 
dates  only  from  the  twelfth  century,  but  as  the  other  contents 
are  copies  of  eleventh  century  originals,  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  cross  legend  also  was  composed  at  an  earlier 
period.  This  theory  is  borne  out  by  the  language,  which 
Napier  considers  too  archaic  for  the  twelfth  century.  From 
a  literary  point  of  view,  as  well  as  linguistically,  the  version 
is  of  the  greatest  interest,  as  showing  the  development  of 
English  prose.  In  its  original  eleventh  century  form,  it 
represented,  perhaps,  the  best  tradition  of  the  literary  West 
Saxon  language  developed  in  the  cloisters,  and  the  grace 
and  ease  of  the  story  show  considerable  mastery  of  the  art 
of  naiTative. 

The  theme  ultimately  depends  on  the  Jewish  legends 
contained  in  the  Book  of  Adam  and  the  Book  of  Enoch,  and  it 
had   originally  no  connection  with  Christianity.     The  story 


h8  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

frequently  occurs  in  medieval  literature  (as,  for  instance,  in 
the  South  English  Legendary  and  the  Cursor  Mundi),  and  a 
brief  outline  of  it  may  therefore  be  given  here.  Unfortunately 
the  earlier  part  of  the  legend  in  its  Latin  form,  treating  of  the 
history  of  the  rood  to  the  time  of  Moses,  is  missing  in  the  Eng- 
lish text.  The  story  shapes  itself  as  follows :  Adam  being  on 
the  point  of  death.  Eve  and  Seth  go  to  Paradise  to  ask  the 
guardian  angel  for  the  healing  oil  of  life.  Seth,  as  fallen  man, 
is  denied  entrance  to  Paradise,  and  instead  of  the  oil  the  angel 
gives  him  three  pips  of  cedar,  cypress  and  pine.  When  Seth 
returns  to  his  father,  he  finds  Adam  already  dead;  he  places 
the  three  pips  under  Adam's  tongue,  and,  God  having  given 
Adam's  body  to  Michael,  it  is  buried  by  the  four  archangels  in 
Paradise.  The  pips  fructify  in  the  ground,  and  from  them 
spring  three  rods,  which  remain  green  until  the  time  of  Moses. 
The  Old  English  version  begins  at  this  point  and  tells  how  Mo- 
ses, having  led  the  children  of  Israel  over  the  Red  Sea,  lies  down 
to  rest,  and,  in  the  morning,  finds  that  three  rods  have  sprung 
up,  one  at  his  head,  and  one  at  each  side.  With  these  rods 
he  makes  sweet  the  bitter  waters,  and  the  host  continues  its 
journey  to  Arabia.  Hither  David,  whom  the  legend  repre- 
sents as  contemporary  with  Moses,  is  sent  to  demand  the 
rods,  and  it  is  revealed  to  him  in  a  vision  that  they  betoken 
the  Trinity.^  He  carries  them  to  Jerusalem,  where  there  is  a 
pit  of  water  so  bitter  that  none  can  taste  of  it.  The  rods  are 
placed  in  it,  and  they  join  together  into  a  mighty  tree,  the 
growth  of  which  is  marked  by  silver  rings.  After  the  death 
of  David,  Solomon  attempts  to  use  the  tree  for  the  building  of 
the  Temple;  but,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  continually  alters 
in  length,  this  proves  impossible,  and  it  remains  untouched 
within  the  sanctuary.  Finally,  when  the  Jews  seek  for  a  tree 
on  which  to  crucify  Christ,  they  remember  this  rood,  and  use 
part  of  it  for  the  cross. 

The  legend  of  the  finding  of  the  cross  by  St.  Helena  is 
entirely  Christian  in  origin,  and  is  cognate  to  the  version  in 
The  Golden  Legend  of  Jacobus  a  Voragine,  and  in  the  Bollandist 
Acta  Sanctorum  for  the  fourth  of  May,  and  it  is  the  same  theme 
as  that  treated  so  beautifully  by  Cynewulf  in  his  Elene. 

'  "  Cypressus  tacnae5  {^one  fasder;  Cedrus  tacae5  fione  sunae;  Pinus  tacnae5 
J'one  habae  gast." 


Legends  of  the  East  H9 

An  important  legend  cycle,  to  which  attention  has  recently 
been  drawn,  is  that  of  the  letter  sent  from  Heaven  on  Sunday 
observance.  It  is  found  in  Old  English  in  four  of  Wulfstan's 
homilies,  and  in  two  separate  versions  (C.C.C.C.  140  and  162). 
Of  the  legends  printed  by  Cockayne,  that  of  Jamnes  and 
Mambres  has  quite  a  modern  "  psychical"  flavour.  The  fact  of 
its  being  a  mere  fragment,  and  breaking  off  w^hen  just  about 
to  become  dull,  saves  it  in  the  eyes  of  all  lovers  of  ghost-tales. 

In  addition  to  other  legends  of  a  sacred  character  there  are 
others  of  a  more  worldly  nature,  the  most  remarkable  being 
the  (suppositious)  Letter  from  Alexander  to  Aristotle,^  The 
Wonders  of  the  East^  and  the  story  of  Apolloniiis  of  Tyre.^ 
The  first  two  are  closely  connected  with  the  eastern  legend 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  which  had  taken  shape  before  the 
Christian  era  in  a  work  known  as  the  pseudo-Kallisthenes,  which 
was  translated  into  Latin  before  340  by  the  so-called  Julius  Va- 
lerius. The  two  Alexander  legends,  as  we  have  them,  are 
very  faithful  translations  from  Latin  originals,  each  chapter  of 
The  Wonders  of  the  East  being  preceded  by  a  copy  of  the  text 
on  which  it  is  founded.  They  are  important  in  the  history 
of  literature  as  proving  the  interest  taken  by  the  educated 
clergy  of  the  eleventh  century  in  the  Latin  legend  cycles. 
Rather  later  than  these  two  works,  and  also  of  eastern  origin, 
is  the  Old  English  version  of  Apolloniiis' of  Tyre,  of  which 
only  half  is  extant,  a  translation  of  the  153rd  chapter  of  the 
Gesta  Romanorum,  which,  in  its  turn,  depends  on  a  lost  Greek 
original  of  the  third  century.  It  tells  of  the  wooing  of  the 
king  of  Antioch's  daughter  by  Apollonius  of  Tyre,  and  how  her 
father,  to  prevent  her  marriage,  required  her  suitors  to  solve 
a  riddle  or  to  be  beheaded.  The  early  appearance  of  this 
legend  in  the  vernacular  is  especially  interesting,  since  Gower's 
version  of  the  story  in  his  Confessio  Amantis  provided  the 
theme  for  Pericles  of  Tyre.  The  presence  of  these  legends  in 
Old  English  is  peculiarly  significant  as  indicating  the  on- 
coming flood  of  foreign  literature.  Hitherto,  the  priest  had 
been  the  story-teller,  after  the  heroic  minstrelsy  of  earlier 
days  had  passed  away;  henceforth,  the  lighter  touch  of  the 
deliberate  tale-teller  was  to  be  heard  in  English. 

From  these  we  must  turn  to  consider  the  quasi-scientific 

«  MS.  Vitell.  A.  XV.  ^Cott.  Tib.  B.  v.  ^  C.C.C.C.  S.  18. 


I50  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

works  of  this  period,  which  have  all  been  printed  by  Cockayne 
in  his  Leechdoms,  Wortcunning  and  Starcraft  in  Early  England. 
As  might  be  expected,  they  have  little  literary  value,  but  are 
extremely  interesting  from  a  historical  standpoint,  since  they 
throw  many  valuable  side-lights  on  the  manners  and  social 
conditions  of  the  time.  Cockayne's  collection  begins  with  the 
Herbarium  that  passes  under  the  name  of  Apuleius,  a  work 
stating  the  various  ills  for  which  each  plant  is  a  remedy.  It 
appears  in  four  MSS.,  the  one  printed  by  Cockayne^  dating 
from  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh  century.  Following  this 
is  an  English  version  of  the  Medicina  de  quadrupedibus  of 
Sextus  Placidus,  about  whom  nothing  is  known,  which  describes 
the  various  kinds  of  animals  and  the  use  of  their  bodies  in 
medicine. 

Even  more  interesting  is  the  leech-book  in  Cockayne's 
second  volume.  ^  The  author  was  evidently  acquainted 
with  the  Greek  and  Latin  authorities  on  medicine,  for  the 
work  is  full  of  their  prescriptions,  and  Helias,  patriarch  of 
Jerusalem,  is  mentioned  as  having  sent  such  prescriptions  to 
King  Alfred. 

Lastly,  Cockayne  printed  in  his  third  volume  two  collect- 
tions  of  miscellaneous  recipes  3,  and  a  number  of  prognostica- 
tions, interpretations  of  dreams  and  a  horologium.  "*  The 
first  collection  is  extremely  interesting  on  account  of  the 
heathen  nature  of  many  of  the  prescriptions,  which  require 
for  their  efficacy  the  repetition  of  charms.  Some  of  these 
are  mere  gibberish,  in  which,  however,  fragments  of  Greek, 
Latin  and  Hebrew  may  be  traced;  others,  such  as  the  cele- 
brated charm  against  the  stitch,  show  close  connection  with 
Scandinavian  mythology;  while  in  some,  such  as  the  charm 
to  bring  home  straying  cattle,  there  is  a  curious  mingling 
of  Christian  nomenclature  and  heathen  superstition.  All 
these  works  are  deeply  tinged  with  poetic  feeling;  and  the 
desire  to  propitiate  the  powers  that  distribute  storm  and 
sunshine  is  visible  throughout.  The  date  of  these  compositions 
is  not  known,  but  most  of  the  manuscripts  belong  to  the 
eleventh  century. 

From  the   foregoing   survey   of    English   prose   literature 

»  Cott.  Vitell.  C.  III.  2  Printed  from  MS.  Reg.  12  D.  xvi. 

»  MS.  Harl.  585  and  MS.  Had.  625S.       ^  Chiefly  from  MS.  Cott.  Tib.  A.  iii. 


Ballads  and  Poems  in  the  "Chronicle"      151 

during  the  eleventh  century  it  is  clear  that  the  language  had 
attained  considerable  development  as  a  literary  medium.  In 
the  hands  of  Aelfric  its  vocabulary  becomes  less  concrete,  its 
construction  more  logical,  and,  though  it  was  still  seen  to  best 
advantage  in  simple  narrative,  it  was  moulded  by  him  with 
fair  success  to  philosophic  requirements.  But,  in  the  years 
that  followed  the  Norman  conquest,  the  development  of  Eng-  .^iaj 
lish  prose  met  with  a  great  check,  and  four  hundred  years 
elapsed  before  the  vernacular  was  again  employed  with  the 
grace  and  fluency  of  Aelfric. 

The  decline  of  Old  English  poetry  cannot  be  so  directly 
attributed  to  the  Norman  conquest.  During  the  course  of  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  the  classical  rhetorical  metre  had 
already  begun  to  deteriorate,  and  was  being  gradually  replaced 
by  the  sung  metre  of  the  popular  ballad.  For  the  whole  of  our 
period  we  have  only  two  great  poems,  the  fragment  of  Judith  <^ 
in  the  Beowulf  MS.  and  the  East  Anglian  poem  of  Byrhtnoth's 
death  at  Maldon.  Both  poems  deal  with  the  struggle  against 
the  same  foe  and  both  are  in  the  alliterative  rhetorical  metre. 
Judith  contains  a  fair  number  of  lines  which  are  undoubtedly 
clear  types  of  sung  verse,  such  as  is  found  in  the  thirteenth 
century  in  Layamon's  Brut.  The  Battle  of  Maldon  also  con- 
tains two  much  alike.  ^  The  adoption  of  this  metre,  which, 
although  ancient,  here  exhibits  what  are  practically  its  *first 
known  traces  in  Old  English  literature,  is  carried  to  much 
greater  lengths  in  the  poems  embedded  in  the  Chronicle;  and  I 

some  observations  upon  this  new  metre  called  the  "sung"  or 
four-beat  verse,  as  opposed  to  the  declamatory  or  two-beat 
metre  of  the  older  poems,  will  be  found  in  an  appendix  at  the 
end  of  the  volume. 

The  first  poem  in  the  Chronicle  occurs  under  the  year  937, 
and  celebrates  the  glorious  victory  won  by  Aethelstan  at 
Brunanburh.     It  is  a  markedly  patriotic  poem  and  shows  deep 

'  But  the  reader  must  be  cautioned  against  assuming  that  every  rimed 
verse  was  also  sung  verse.  The  shorter  types  of  rimed  verse  in  such  poems 
as  Judith  and  The  Battle  of  Maldon  were  almost  certainly  not.  The  only 
sure  criteria  are  (i)  conformity  to  the  metrical  schemes  given  in  the  Appendix, 
(2)  a  tendency  to  neglect  the  rhetoric  stress  and  turn  the  two-beat  rhythm 
into  a  four-beat,  as  shown  by  the  riming  use  of  syllables  not  carrying  the 
full  stress.  Examples  are:  Judith,  1.  231,  (^cgum  gec6stej  s\bgon  eoryibstb ; 
Maldon,  1.  309,  Byrhtwold  ma'peldde  b6rd  hafendde. 


J 


152  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

feeling;  its  brilliant  lyrical  power,  and  the  national  enthusi- 
asm evident  throughout,  have  made  it  familiar,  in  one  form  or 
another,  to  all  lovers  of  English  verse.  Great  care  was  taken 
with  the  metre,  which  is  the  ancient  rhetorical  line. 

Under  the  year  942  another  poem  in  alliterative  rhetorical 
metre  occurs.  It  consists  only  of  a  few  lines,  and  its  subject 
is  the  liberation  of  the  five  boroughs,  Leicester,  Lincoln,  Not- 
tingham, Stam  fordand  Derby,  "which  were  formerly  Danish, 
constrained  by  need  in  the  captive  bonds  of  the  heathen," 
by  Edmund,  son  of  Edward  the  Elder.  It  has  little  poetic 
value;  but  it  is  distinguished  by  the  same  intense  patriotism 
as  is  the  verse  on  the  battle  of  Brunanburh. 

The  first  poem  in  sung  verse  contained  in  the  Chronicle  is 
that  for  959,  on  the  accession  of  King  Edgar.  It  contains  forty- 
eight  half  lines,  making  twenty-four  full  lines,  connected,  of 
which  only  about  eight  show  alliteration.  The  lines  are  con- 
nected in  the  earlier  form  of  rimeless  rhythm,  not  strictly  alliter- 
ative, though  assonance  is  sometimes  found.  Metrically,  it  is 
our  best  preserved  example.  The  theme  is  the  prosperity  of 
Edgar;  how  his  wise  rule  was  honoured  far  and  wide,  how 
he  established  peace  in  the  land  and  how  he  was  rewarded  by 
God  with  the  willing  submission  of  kings  and  earls.  Of  one 
fault,  however,  says  the  chronicler,  he  was  too  often  guilty, 
namely  that  he  loved  foreign  ways  and  enticed  outlanders 
into  his  dominions.  The  poem  ends  with  a  prayer  that  God 
may  be  more  mindful  of  the  king's  virtues  than  of  his  evil 
deeds,  and  that  they  may  shield  his  soul  from  harm  on  its  long 
journey  hence. 

The  delight  of  the  English  in  the  peaceful  rule  of  Edgar  is 
still  further  shown  by  a  poem  in  the  old  rhetorical  metre  which 
is  variously  given  in  the  different  recensions  of  the  Chronicle 
under  the  years  972,  973  and  974,  and  relates  the  coronation 
of  Edgar.  The  Peterborough  chronicle  has  some  lines  which 
have  been  written  as  verse,  but  scansion  seems  to  raise  insur- 
mountable difficulties.  It  can  only  be  scanned  on  the  assump- 
tion that  we  have  an  attempt  to  combine  two-stress  lines  with 
four-stress  rhythm — an  utter  failure.  They  tell  how  kings 
came  from  afar  to  do  homage  to  Edgar,  and  how  there  was 
no  fleet  so  daring  as  to  threaten  his  dominions,  or  host  so  strong 
as  to  ravage  the  land  while  he  ruled  over  it. 


Ballads  and  Poems  in  the  "Chronicle"     ^53 

Another  interesting  ballad  poem,  on  the  troubles  caused 
by  Aelfhere  and  other  rebels  in  the  reign  of  Edgar's  son  Edward, 
is  found  in  the  MS.  known  as  Cott.  Tib.  B.  iv.  It  is  of  nine- 
teen half  lines,  or  nine  and  one-half  full  lines.  The  linking 
system  seems  to  be  mostly  alliteration,  but  rime  and  assonance 
show  themselves  most  clearly  where  alliteration  becomes  ab- 
sent or  weak,  as  in 

Gpdes  wil^ersaecan 

Godfes  lage  braecon 
and 

mynstra  tostaencton, 
and 

munecas  todraefdon. 

The  verse  is  sung  ballad-verse,  and  the  alliteration  what 
would  be  called  irregular  in  rhetorical  verse.  It  is  uncer- 
tain whether  what  seems  an  opening  verse  really  belongs 
to  the  song. 

The  murder  of  Edward,  son  of  Edgar,  at  Corfesgeat,  is 
related  in  a  peculiarly  distinctive  poem,  which  is  quite  clearly 
in  sung  verse,  and  shows  traces  of  strophic  arrangement.  A 
later  hand  has  tampered  greatly  with  the  original  poem ;  some 
lines  have,  obviously,  been  lengthened,  and  the  last  six  printed 
as  verse  do  not  scan  as  such,  being,  possibly,  only  rhythmic 
prose  added  afterwards.  They  are  exactly  like  the  irregular 
lines  on  Edgar's  death.  Probably  the  chronicler  took  a  popu- 
lar ballad  or  ballads,  broke  it  up,  and  attempted  to  destroy  its 
sing-song  character  by  the  addition  of  end  verses.  This,  and 
the  strophic  character  of  the  original  or  originals,  would  account 
for  its  metrical  variety  and  uncertainty.  In  several  places  we 
meet  with  half  line  tags,  generally  trimetric,  once  certainly 
in  full  tetrameter.  The  poem  declares  that  no  worse  deed 
than  the  murder  of  Edward  had  ever  been  committed  among 
the  English  since  the  invasion  of  Britain ;  men  murdered  him, 
but  God  glorified  him ;  and  he  who  was  before  an  earthly  king 
is  now,  after  death,  a  heavenly  saint.  His  earthly  kinsmen 
would  not  avenge  him,  but  his  heavenly  Father  has  avenged 
him  amply,  and  they  who  would  not  bow  to  him  li\-ing  now 
bend  humbly  on  their  knees  to  his  dead  bones.  Thus,  we 
may  perceive  that  men's  plans  are  as  naught  before  God's. 
The  words     "Men   murdered  him,   but   God  glorified   him," 


154  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

are  alliterative,  and  seem  like  a  refrain ;  and  the  whole  poem  is, 
metrically,  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  series. 

There  is  a  long  interval  before  the  next  verses,  which  tell 
of  the  siege  of  Canterbury,  and  the  capture  of  archbishop 
Aelfheah  (Alphege)  in  loii.  They  consist  of  nine  half  lines 
of  sung  verse,  and  are,  evidently,  a  quotation  from  some  ballad 
commemorating  these  disasters.  They  lament  the  imprison- 
ment of  him  who  was  erstwhile  head  of  Christendom  and 
England,  and  the  misery  that  men  might  now  behold  in  the 
unhappy  city  whence  first  came  the  joys  of  Christianity. 
There  are  some  difficulties  in  scansion,  and  the  variant  readings 
in  certain  MSS.\  though  they  can  be  restored  to  something 
like  proper  metrical  harmony,  show  what  mishandling  these 
songs  underwent  when  written  down  by  the  scribes. 

The  metre  of  the  next  poem  is  much  better  preserved.  It  is 
of  the  same  Layamon  sung  verse  type,  but  shows  a  regular 
union  of  each  two  half  lines  by  rime  and  assononce.  Where  this 
fails,  we  can  at  once  suspect  that  the  scribe  has  tampered 
with  the  original  version.  The  assonance  is  wholly  south- 
eastern. Its  subject  is  the  capture  and  cruel  fate  of  the  aethel- 
ing  Alfred,  and  it  shows  a  strong  spirit  of  partisanship  against 
Godwin.  This  is  led  up  to  by  the  prose  account  telling  how 
Alfred  came  to  Winchester  to  see  his  mother,  but  w^as  hindered 
and  captured  by  Godwin.  The  poem  relates  how  Godwin 
scattered  Alfred's  followers,  killing  some  and  imprisoning 
others,  and  how  the  aetheling  was  led  bound  to  Ely,  blinded 
aboard  ship  and  given  over  to  the  monks.  It  gives  us  the  im- 
portant architectural  statement  (since  the  old  minster  long 
has  perished)  that  he  was  buried  at  the  west  end  in  the  south 
porch  "close  to  the  steeple."  The  story  is  told  in  twenty 
couplets  of  sung  half  lines  (40  half  lines).  The  few  lines  that 
do  not  rime  can  easily  be  restored.  2 

■  Cott.  Tib.  B.  IV.,  and  Bodl.  Laud.    636. 
2  At  the  end  we  have  the  following :  They  buried  him 
"ful  wuri'^lice  ]  swa  he  wyn'^e  waes  (no  rime) 
aet  |>ani  Westende  |  l^am  styple  fulgehende  (rimes) 
on  ]>am  su<'^portice  |  seo  saul  is  mid  Criste  "  (no  rime)  . 
Now  on  \am.  subportice  rimes  with  ful  wurblice,  although  it  does  not  rime 
in  its  present  place.      It  also  would  then  follow  on  in  sense.     Seo  saul  is  mid 
Criste  needs  a  rime  in  -iste  and  what   better  one  can  be  than  o5  \a  aeriste  ? 
This  rime  was  possibly  removed  because,  on  a  fullstop  being  lost  in  the  last 


Ballads  and  Poems  in  the  "Chronicle"    i55 

Many  of  the  features  of  this  poem  are  paralleled  in  another 
on  a  like  theme,  the  arrival  of  Edward  Aetheling,  son  of  Ed- 
mund Ironside,  in  England  in  1057,  his  illness  and  his  death, 
without  seeing  his  kinsman  the  king.  The  story  is  that  of  the 
death  of  the  last  of  the  kingly  line.  The  poem  is  in  sung  verse, 
the  half  lines  being  mainly  arranged  in  pairs  of  one  short  and 
one  fuller  half  line,  a  combination  which  is  the  great  feature  of 
this  poem,  whose  strophic  connection  depends  absolutely 
neither  on  rime  or  assonance,  but  rather  on  rhythm.  The 
poem  is  in  four  uneven  tirades.  The  first  two  are  ended  by  a 
single  half  line  as  a  tag  (no.  i,  of  3  full  lines  +  tag;  no.  2,  of  5 
full  lines  +  half  line  tag).  The  last  two  tirades  (no.  3,  of  3  full 
lines ;  no.  4,  of  4  full  lines)  are  without  half  line  tags.  The  tags 
may  here  have  been  lost  in  copying. 

It  is  noticeable  that  all  these  poems  in  sung  verse,  which  seem 
to  be  based  on  popular  ballads,  are  characterised  by  deep 
patriotic  feeling.  This,  however,  is  wanting  in  the  alliterative 
rhetorical  lines  on  the  death  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  which 
merely  tell  how  he  had  reigned  for  twenty-four  years  and  had 
governed  illustriously  Welsh,  Scots,  Britons,  Angles  and  Saxons. 

Another  passage  in  sung  verse  dealing  with  the  marriage  of 
Margaret,  the  sister  of  Edward  Aetheling,  to  Malcolm  of  Scot- 
land, and  recording  her  distaste  for  marriage  and  her  desire 
for  convent  life,  seems  to  be  in  ten  sung  half  lines,  of  which  the 
first  four  have  been  completely  wrecked.  The  last  four  are 
perfect  and  of  great  interest.  Less  obscure  are  the  fragments 
on  the  marriage  of  earl  Ralph  of  Norwich,  the  first  couplet  of 
which 

}>aer  waes  Ipaet  bryd  ealo 

tiaet  waes  manegra  manna  bealo. 

shows,  unmistakeably,  its  ballad  origin. 

The  last  verses  of  this  class  are  those  on  the  reign  of  William 
the  Conqueror.  Earle  arranged  some  twelve  lines  as  poetry, 
but  the  whole  passage  claims  similar  treatment,  since,  in  the 

line,  the  first  half  verse  would  apply  to  the  soul,  and  smack  of  heresy  to  the 
monk.     We  may  then  read : 

"ful  wurClice  |  on  Ipara  su5portice. 
aet  ]iam  Westende  |  Ipam  styple  fulgehende 
o66a  aeriste  ]  seo  saul  is  mid  Criste  " 

which  changes  the  architectural  sense. 


156  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

portion  which  he  has  printed  as  prose,  there  occur  examples 
of  full  rime  and  also  of  full  assonance,  connecting  the  half  lines 
in  the  passages  he  has  not  so  written.  The  whole  passage 
seems  to  be  derived  from  at  least  two  ballads  against  the  Nor- 
man conqueror.  The  first  begins  "  He  rixade  ofer  Englaeland  " 
and  tells  of  the  king's  intimate  acquaintance  with  his  domin- 
ions, so  that  he  knew  the  owner  of  every  hide  of  land  and  how 
much  it  was  worth;  then,  how  he  conquered  Wales  and  Scot- 
land and,  if  he  had  lived  two  years  longer,  would  have  won 
Ireland,  also,  without  weapon  strife.  This,  which  is  unrimed, 
is  followed  by  the  passage  "Castelas  he  let  wyrcean,"  which  is 
invaluable  because  of  its  strong  Kentish  assonances.  These 
lines  tell,  in  bitter  words,  of  the  king's  oppression,  of  his  heavy 
taxation,  and  of  the  terrible  game  laws,  drawn  up  to  preserve 
those  "tall  deer"  which  he  loved  as  greatly  as  though  he  were 
their  father.  This  last  part  is  38  lines  long,  divided  into  19 
couplets  linked  by  rime  or  assonance,  the  nineteenth  being 
either  marred  in  transcription  or  a  monastic  addition  in  rime. 
The  spelling  often  hides  the  dialectical  completeness  of  the 
assonance.  After  this  sung  ballad  follows  a  passage  of  rhyth- 
mical prose,  in  which  the  compiler  states  that  he  has  written 
these  things  about  the  king,  both  good  and  evil,  that  men  may 
imitate  the  goodness  and  wholly  flee  from  the  evil.  It  would 
seem  that  the  chronicler  had  to  be  original  in  telling  of  the 
Conqueror's  virtues;  but,  for  the  vices,  he  had  plenty  of  popu- 
lar material  at  hand.  The  unhappy  people  were  in  no  mood 
to  exalt  his  virtues,  and,  for  the  description  of  these,  the  chron- 
icler was  forced  to  rely  on  his  own  literary  resources. 

The  verses  in  the  Chronicle  have  little  literary  merit,  with 
the  exception  of  the  poem  on  the  battle  of  Brunanburh,  and 
this  seems  to  have  been  strongly  influenced  by  the  epic  of 
Judith.  Of  this  latter,  unfortunately,  only  a  beautiful  frag- 
ment, consisting  of  some  350  lines  survives.  ^  Judith  was, 
perhaps,  composed  as  a  eulogy  of  Aethelflaed,  queen  of  Mercia, 
who  fought  nobly  against  the  Danes  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
tenth  century.  It  has  been  attributed  to  Caedmon;  but  its 
use  of  rime  and  the  character  of  its  language  has  led  some  critics 
to  place  the  poem  comparatively  late.  The  use  of  rime,  how- 
ever,   is   no   conclusive   argument.     It   recounts,    in   vigorous 

1   Cott.  Vitell.  XV. 


"Judith"  157 

language,  the  deeds  of  the  Apocryphid  heroine,  and  dwells 
especially  on  the  way  in  which  her  deed  stired  up  the  timorous 
Jews  to  more  courageous  patriotism.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
Aelfric  himself  had  written  a  homily  on  Judith,  to  teach  the 
English  the  virtues  of  resistance  to  the  Danes.  This  homily 
must  have  been  written  earlier,  and,  perhaps,  it  influenced 
the  writer  of  Judith  to  choose  her  as  a  national  type  in  the  fight 
for  God  and  fatherland.  The  poem,  as  we  have  it,  begins  at 
the  end  of  the  ninth  canto ;  cantos  x,  xi  and  xii  are  preserved 
in  full,  but  the  earlier  part  of  the  poem  is  entirely  wanting. 
This  loss,  however,  is  the  less  to  be  regretted  since  the  remain- 
ing cantos,  containing  the  crisis  of  the  story,  are,  probably, 
the  finest  of  all,  and  deal  with  a  complete  episode,  to  which 
the  fragment  of  canto  ix,  telling  of  the  faith  of  the  heroine 
and  the  invitation  to  the  feast  of  Holofernes,  serves  as  intro- 
duction. Canto  X  describes,  with  all  the  delight  of  Old  English 
poets  in  such  pictures,  the  banquet  in  the  Assyrian  camp, 
the  deep  bowls  of  wine  borne  along  the  benches,  and  the  shouts 
and  laughter  of  the  revellers.  Darkness  descends,  and  the 
warriors  bring  the  maiden  to  their  master's  tent.  Overcome 
with  wine,  he  falls  into  a  deep  slumber,  and  the  heroine,  with  a 
supplication  to  heaven  for  help  draws  the  sword  from  its 
sheath.  She  hales  the  heathen  towards  her  by  his  hair,  and 
smites  twice  with  her  weapon,  till  his  head  rolls  upon  the  floor. 
In  canto  xi,  we  read  how  Judith  and  her  maid  steal  from  the 
camp  with  the  head  of  Holofernes,  and  return  to  Bethulia, 
where  their  kinsmen  are  waiting  for  them  on  the  wall.  As 
soon  as  the  two  approach,  men  and  women  hasten  together 
to  meet  them,  and  Judith  bids  her  servant  uncover  the  trophy 
and  exhibit  it  to  the  w^arriors.  Then,  with  passionate  words, 
she  exhorts  them  to  attack  the  camp,  to  bear  forth  shields 
and  buckleig  and  bright  helmets  among  the  foe.  So,  at 
dawn  of  day,  they  set  out,  the  wolf  and  raven  rejoicing  in  the 
tumult,  and  the  dew^y-feathered  eagle  singing  his  war-song 
above  them,  their  sudden  onset  on  the  camp  disturbing  the 
enemy,  drowsy  with  mead.  The  next  canto  relates  how  the 
terrified  Assyrians  hasten  to  tell  their  leader  of  the  assault, 
and  how,  when  they  find  only  his  dead  body,  they,  "sorrow- 
fully minded,  cast  down  their  weapons,  and  turn,  sad  at 
heart,  to  flight."     The  poem  ends  w^ith  the  entire  overthrow 


158  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

of  the  Assyrians,  the  return  of  the  conquerors  with  their  booty 
to  Bethulia,  and  Judith's  praise  of  the  Almighty  for  the  triumph 
of  her  stratagem. 

From  this  sketch  of  the  poem  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is 
closely  allied  in  theme  to  those  of  Cynewulf  and  his  school, 
and  this  led  to  the  assumption  of  Ten  Brink  and  others  that 
it  was  composed  in  the  early  part  of  the  ninth  century.  A 
close  investigation  of  its  diction  by  Gregory  Foster  led  him 
to  place  it  a  century  later;  and,  if,  as  he  thinks,  it  was  composed 
to  commemorate  the  valiant  deeds  of  Aethelflaed,  the  Lady  of 
Mercia,  who  wrested  the  five  boroughs  from  the  Danes,  it  was 
probably  written  about  918.  But  nothing  can  be  said  with  cer- 
tainty on  the  subject. 

As  poetry,  this  fragment  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  Old 
English  literature,  with  Beowulf  and  Elene  and  Andreas.  In 
wealth  of  synonym  it  is  equal  to  the  best  poems  of  Cynewulf, 
while  the  construction  of  the  sentences  is  simpler,  and  the  nar- 
rative, in  consequence,  less  obscure.  An  impression  of  intensity 
is  produced  by  the  heaping  of  synonyms  in  moments  of  stress, 
as  in  the  prayer  of  Judith,  and  in  the  fierce  lines  which  describe 
the  onset  against  the  Assyrians;  while  a  sense  of  dramatic 
fitness  is  shown  in  the  transitions,  the  divisions  of  the  cantos 
and  the  preparation  for  each  great  adventure.  The  tragedy  is 
alive,  and  the  actors  play  their  parts  before  our  eyes. 

The  patriotic  feeling  which  probably  gave  rise  to  Judith 
was  certainly  responsible  for  the  second  great  poem  of  our 
period,  the  Battle  of  Maldon,  sometimes  called  Byrhtnotk's 
Death.  The  manuscript  of  this  poemi  was  destroyed  by  the 
Cottonian  fire ;  but  it  had,  fortunately,  been  printed  by  Heme 
in  1726,  and  it  is  from  his  text  that  our  knowledge  of  the  poem 
is  derived.  It  celebrates  the  death  of  the  great  ealdonnan 
Byrthnoth,  who  was  connected  by  close  ties  of  Jcinship  with 
Aethelmaer,  the  friend  of  Aelfric;  it  was,  indeed  partly  by 
means  of  legacies  left  by  him  that  Aethelmaer  was  enabled 
to  support  so  generously  the  monastic  revival,  and  it  is,  therefore 
fitting  that  he  should  be  commemorated  by  one  of  the  finest 
poems  in  Old  English.  In  the  poem  before  us  he  stands  out  as 
the  ideal  leader  of  men,  admirable  alike  in  his  devotion  to  his 
king,  his  simple  piety  and  his  sense  of  responsibility  towards 

»  0th.  A.  xii. 


I 


*'The  Battle  of  Maldon  "  159 

his  followers.  He  died  as  became  a  member  of  the  race  that 
thirsts  for  danger,  i  almost  the  last  of  the  warriors  of  that  time 
w^ho  maintained  the  noble  tradition  of  the  days  of  Alfred.  In 
less  than  twenty  years  after  this  date,  the  chronicler  tells  a 
pitiful  story  of  divisions  between  those  who  should  have  united 
to  lead  the  people  to  battle,  and  of  forced  payment  of  the 
shameful  tribute  which  Byrhtnoth  refused. 

It  was  in  the  year  991  that  the  Northman  Anlaf  sailed 
with  ninety-three  ships  to  the  coast  of  England,  and  after 
harrying  Stone,  Sandwich  and  Ipswich,  came  to  Maeldune 
(now  Maldon)  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Panta  or  Blackwater. 
The  stream  divides  here  into  two  branches,  and,  leaving  their 
ships  at  anchor  in  one  of  them,  the  Danes  drew  up  their  forces 
on  the  intervening  piece  of  land.  The  poem,  the  beginning 
and  end  of  which  are  lost,  opens  with  the  directions  of  Byrht- 
noth to  his  men,  and  tells  how,  after  marshalling  his  troops, 
he  exhorted  them  to  stand  firm,  taking  his  place  among  the 
band  of  his  immediate  followers.  At  that  moment  there  ap- 
peared on  the  other  side  of  the  stream  the  viking  herald,  who 
said  that  he  was  sent  by  the  seamen  to  announce  that,  if 
Brythnoth  would  buy  off  the  assault  with  tribute,  they  would 
make  peace  w4th  him  and  return  to  their  own  land.  But  Byrht- 
noth scornfully  rejected  the  offer,  saying  that  he  would  give 
tribute,  indeed,  but  it  should  be  the  tribute  of  the  sharp  spear 
and  the  ancient  sword,  and  their  only  booty  would  be  battle. 
With  this  message  he  bade  his  men  advance  to  the  edge  of  the 
stream;  but,  owing  to  the  inflowing  flood  after  the  ebb,  neither 
army  could  reach  the  other,  and  they  waited  in  battle  array 
till  the  tide's  going  out.  Then  Byrhtnoth,  overvv^eeningly 
daring,  trusting  too  much  in  his  own  strength,  allowed  the 
enemy  to  cross  by  the  bridge  (probably  one  of  stepping-stones 
which  would  be  covered  at  high  tide),  and  the  fight  became 
fierce.  "The  time  had  come  for  the  fated  men  to  fall;  then 
was  a  tumult  raised,  the  raven,  eager  for  carrion,  hovered  in  the 
air,  and  on  earth  was  a  great  cry."  On  every  side  fell  the 
heroes;  a  kinsman  of  Byrhtnoth  was  wounded,  and,  at  last, 
the  brave  earl  himself  was  slain  by  a  poisoned  spear.  With  his 
last  w^ords  he  exhorted  his  men  to  resistance,  and  died  com- 
mending his  soul  to  God.     True  to  the  noble  traditions  of  the 

'  Tacitus,  Hist,  v,  19. 


i6o  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

heroic  age,  Aclfnoth  and  Wulfmaer  shared  his  faith  and  feU, 
hewn  down  by  the  heathen  beside  their  lord.  Then  cowards 
began  to  flee  and  seek  safety  in  the  woods,  forgetting  the  brave 
words  they  had  spoken  when  feasting  in  the  mead-hall.  But 
Aelfwine,  the  son  of  Aelfric,  shouted  to  those  fleeing,  reminding 
them  of  their  vows,  and  declaring  that  none  among  his  race 
should  twit  him  with  flight,  now  that  his  prince  lay  fallen  in 
battle,  he  who  was  both  his  kinsman  and  his  lord.  His  brave 
words  were  taken  up  by  Offa  and  Dunnere;  and  the  warriors 
advanced  to  a  fresh  attack.  The  appearance  amongst  the 
defending  ranks  of  Aeschere,  son  of  Ecglaf,  a  Northumbrian 
hostage  is  of  great  interest,  as  it  seems,  for  a  moment,  to  give 
us  a  vivid  glance  of  the  political  troubles  of  the  land.  The  poem 
ends  by  telling  how  Godric  exhorted  his  comrades  and  fought 
fiercely  against  the  heathen  till  he  too  fell. 

This  brief  outline  may,  perhaps,  give  some  idea  of  the 
great  interest  of  the  poem,  whose  every  word  is  filled  with  deep 
hatred  against  the  marauding  foe,  and  with  dignified  sorrow 
for  the  loss  of  beloved  friends.  The  verse  is  as  noble  as  the 
deed  and  instinct  with  dramatic  life.  In  it  we  see  the  heroic 
feeling  of  the  earlier  national  poetry,  full  of  the  Teutonic  theme 
of  loyal  friendship  and  warlike  courage.  And  not  until  many 
hundreds  of  years  have  elapsed  do  we  find  its  equal  in  tragic 
strength.  It  is  from  this  stirring  narrative,  from  Wulfstan's 
address  to  the  English  and  from  the  bitter  records  in  the 
Chronicle,  that  we  realise  the  degradation  of  the  country  during 
the  unhappy  reign  of  Aethelred. 

The  remaining  poems  of  our  period  in  the  old  alliterative 
metre  are  of  a  didactic  character.  Among  them  may  be  men- 
tioned the  Menologium  or  poetical  calendar,  which  is  prefixed 
to  a  version  of  the  Chronicle.^  It  is  an  interesting  metrical 
survey  of  the  progress  of  the  year,  with  special  mention  of  the 
saints'  days  observed  by  the  church,  preserving  some  of  the 
Old  English  names  of  the  months,  such  as  Weodmona-S (August) , 
Winterfylle-S  (October)  and  Blotmona-S  (November),  and 
retaining  traces  of  heathen  times,  though  the  whole  is 
Christian  in  basis.  Its  value,  as  poetry,  depends  on  the 
tender  feeling  for  nature  shown  in  such  passages  as  those  which 
describe  the  coming  of  May,  tranquil  and  gentle,  w4th  blossom- 

'   Cott.  Tib.  B.  1. 


"Be  Domes  Daege"  i6i 

ing  woods  and  flowers,  or  winter,  which  cuts  off  the  harvest 
with  the  sword  of  rime  and  snow,  when  all  is  fettered  with 
frost  by  the  hest  of  the  Creator,  so  that  men  may  no  longer 
haunt  the  green  meadows  or  the  flowery  fields. 

Of  more  literary  value  is  the  poem  entitled  Be  Domes  Daege,  ^ 
a  free  version  of  the  Latin  poem  De  Die  Judicii,  by  some  schol- 
ars ascribed  to  Bede  and  by  others  to  Alcuin.  The  157  lines 
of  the  Latin  original  are  expanded  to  304  by  the  translator, 
whose  imaginative  gift  is  especially  visible  in  the  way  he 
enlarges  on  a  hint  from  his  source.  The  opening  passage  is 
extremely  beautiful.  It  tells  how,  as  the  author  sat  lonely 
within  a  bower  in  a  wood  where  the  streams  murmured  among 
pleasant  plants,  a  wind  suddenly  arose  that  stirred  the  trees 
and  darkened  the  sky,  so  that  his  mind  was  troubled,  and  he 
began  to  sing  of  the  coming  of  death.  He  describes  how  he  wept 
and  lay  upon  the  earth,  beating  his  breast  for  sorrow,  and  he 
calls  upon  all  his  fellow  sinners  to  confess  their  sins  with  tears 
and  to  throw  themselves  on  the  mercy  of  Christ.  Then  comes 
another  highly  imaginative  passage,  describing  the  terrors  that 
will  foretell  the  second  advent.  "All  the  earth  shaketh, 
and  the  hills  also  quiver  and  fall;  the  gates  of  the  mountains 
bend  and  melt,  and  the  terrible  tumult  of  the  stormy  sea  fear- 
fully frights  the  minds  of  men."  Then  the  Lord  shall  come 
with  hosts  of  angels,  the  sins  of  all  shall  be  revealed  and  fire 
shall  consume  the  unrepentant.  The  poem  ends  with  a  pas- 
sage, partly  borrowed  from  the  Latin,  on  the  joys  of  the  re- 
deemed. They  shall  be  numbered  in  heaven  among  the  angels, 
and  there,  amidst  clusters  of  red  roses,  shall  shine  for  ever. 
A  throng  of  virgin  souls  shall  wander  there,  garlanded  with 
flowers,  led  by  that  most  blessed  of  maidens  who  bore  the 
Lord  on  earth. 

The  translation  is  one  of  the  finest  in  Old  English.  It  is 
far  more  powerful  than  its  Latin  original,  and  many  of  the 
most  beautiful  passages  are  new  matter  put  in  by  the  Old 
English  translator ;  for  example,  the  lengthening  of  the  opening, 
telling  of  the  woodland  scene,  the  section  of  the  terrors  of  judg- 
ment and  hell,  and  the  whole  passage  describing  Mary  leading 
the  flower-decked  maiden  throng  in  Heaven. 

'  Found  in  a  unique  manuscript  in  the  library  of  Corpus  Christi  College, 
Cambridee. 


i62  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

In  the  same  manuscript  occurs  another  poem  to  which  its 
editor,  Lumby,  gave  the  title  of  Ldr,  and  which  he  ascribed  to 
the  author  of  the  previous  poem.  It  has,  however,  none  of  the 
imaginative  power  of  Be  Domes  Daege,  and  consists  simply  of 
eighty  lines  of  exhortatory  verse  addressed  by  one  friend  to 
another,  bidding  him  work,  fear  God,  pray,  give  alms  and  go  to 
church  in  cold  weather.  And,  since  the  length  of  life  is  un- 
known, and  the  enemies  of  man  are  ever  at  hand  to  assail  him, 
they  must  be  routed  by  earnest  prayer  and  meditation,  and  the 
abandonment  of  all  bad  habits.  The  low  poetical  worth  of  this 
piece  would  seem  to  show  that  it  w^as  not  by  the  translator 
of  Be  Domes  Daege. 

Next  follow  in  the  manuscript  some  curious  verses,  of  which 
each  line  is  half  in  Latin  and  half  in  English,  and  which  were 
formerly  also  attributed  to  the  author  of  Be  Domes  Daege. 
The  poems,  however,  differ  so  much  in  merit  that  this  theory 
must  certainly  be  rejected.  The  further  theory  that  the 
invocation  of  saints  in  these  verses  shows  that  it  was  not 
by  the  author  of  Be  Domes  Daege  is,  however,  scarcely  sound, 
for  it  disregards  contemporary  theology  and  overlooks  the 
English  verses  in  praise  of  the  Virgin  added  by  the  trans- 
lator of  that  poem.  Hence  our  truest  warrant  for  attributing 
these  verses  to  a  different  author  lies  rather  in  the  beauty  and 
dignity  of  Be  Domes  Daege.  The  hymn  in  question  is  an 
ingenious  piece  of  trickery,  like  many  a  Provencal  poem  of  later 
date.  It  opens  with  a  prayer  for  God's  mercy  on  the  reader, 
and  then  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  incarnation,  ending  with  an 
invocation  to  Mary  and  the  saints.  These  verses,  however, 
are  of  inestimable  value  metrically,  since  they  show,  by  their 
Latin  equivalents,  the  two-beat  characters  of  the  rhetorical 
verse,  just  as  similar  Old  German  poems  show,  by  their  far 
greater  length  in  the  Latin  portions,  the  four-beat  characters 
of  Germanic  sung  verse. 

More  interesting  are  the  eleventh  century  metrical  versions 
of  the  Psalms,  in  a  manuscript  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 
This  MS.  contains  only  Psalms  1  to  cl,  but  Bouterwek  discov- 
ered further  fragments  in  a  Benedictine  office,  which  partly 
fill  up  the  gaps,  and  point  to  the  existence  of  a  complete  metri- 
cal version  of  the  Psalter  in  Old  English.  Taken  altogether, 
however,  this  Benedictine  office  is  merely  a  heap  of  fragments. 


A  Poem  on  the  City  of  Durham  163 

The  translation  is,  as  a  rule,  good,  when  play  is  given  to  love 
of  nature  or  to  feeling,  common  in  Old  English  poetry.  An 
isolated  version  exists  of  Psalm  1  in  Kentish  dialect, '  which 
was  formerly  supposed  to  belong  to  the  eighth  century,  but 
which  is  shown,  by  its  language,  to  be  two  hundred  years  later. 
It  was  not,  apparently,  one  of  a  series,  but  was  complete  in 
itself,  being  rounded  off  at  the  close  by  a  short  hymn-like 
passage  on  David's  sin  and  his  atonement. 

A  gloomy  poem  on  The  Grave,  "  For  thee  was  a  house  built 
Ere  thou  wast  born,"  etc.,  written  in  the  margin  of  a  volume 
of  homilies  in  the  Bodleian  2  and  known  to  all  readers  of  Long- 
fellow and  many  beside,  need  not  detain  us  long.  It  is, 
probably,  of  later  date  than  any  of  the  poems  already  referred 
to  and  shows  signs  of  the  coming  metrical  change. 

Last,  there  must  be  mentioned  a  poem  on  the  city  of  Dur- 
ham, which,  though  not  composed  within  our  period,  is  the 
latest  in  classical  rhetorical  metre  that  is  known  to  exist,  and 
is,  therefore,  most  suitably  described  in  this  place.  One  ver- 
sion ^  was  printed  by  Hickes  in  his  Thesaurus  (1703-05),  and 
another  copy  occurs  at  the  close  of  a  manuscript  of  the  Historia 
Ecclesia  Diinelmensis  of  Simeon  of  Durham  in  the  University 
Library,  Cambridge.  The  poem,  which  contains  twenty  long 
lines,  falls  in  two  parts,  the  first  eight  describing  the  city  on 
the  hill,  surrounded  with  steep  rocks,  girdled  by  the  strong 
flowing  river,  and  full  of  many  kinds  of  fish,  and  environed 
by  forests  in  whose  deep  dells  dwell  countless  wild  beasts; 
w^hile  the  last  twelve  tell  of  the  wonderful  relics  preserved 
there,  memorials  of  Cuthbert  and  Oswald,  Aidan  and  Eadberg, 
Eadfrith  and  bishop  Aethelwold,as  well  as  of  the  famous  writers 
Bede  and  Boisil,  which,  amidst  the  veneration  of  the  faithful, 
awaited  in  the  minster  the  doomsday  of  the  Lord.  It  is  this 
catalogue  of  saints  which  enables  us  to  fix  the  date  of  the 
poem,  for  the  translation  of  their  relics  to  the  new  cathedral 
took  place  in  1104,  and  the  poem  follows  closely  the  order 
of  enumeration  found  in  Simeon  of  Durham's  description  of  that 
ceremony.  4  Although  it  is  written  in  a  trained  archaistic 
attempt  at  West  Saxon  spelling,   yet  we  catch  many  clear 

1  Cott.  Vesp.  D.  V.  I. 

2  NE.  F.  4,  12. 

3  Cott.  Vitt.  D.  20. 

*  Capitula  de  Miractilis  et  Translationibus  S.  Cuthberti,  Cap.  vii. 


y 


T64  From  Alfred  to  the  Conquest 

glimpses  of  south-eastern  twelfth  century  phonology  in  its 
faulty  attempts  at  corrections. 

After  1 100,  English  poetry  ceases  to  exist  for  nigh  a  hundred 
years,  although  fragments  remain  to  bear  witness  to  that  popu- 
lar verse  which  was  to  keep  in  the  west  midlands  and  north 
some  continuity  with  the  old  poetry — for  the  sung  rhythm 
never  died  out  amongst  the  common  folk,  and  rose  ever  and 
anon  to  such  songs  as  that  of  The  Pearl,  to  heroic  lays  of  Arthur, 
Alexander  and  Troy  and,  in  our  own  days,  has  been  revived  in 
the  rhythm  of  the  mystic  Cristahel. 

English  prose  was  wrecked  for  many  a  hundred  year. 
Centuries  elapsed  before  Aelfric  had  his  equal  again. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Norman  Conquest 

THE  Norman  conquest  of  England,  from  a  literary  point 
of  view,  did  not  begin  on  the  autumn  day  that  saw 
Harold's  levies  defeated  by  Norman  archers  on  the 
slopes  of  Senlac.  It  began  with  the  years  which,  from  his  early 
youth  onwards,  Edward  the  Confessor,  the  grandson  of  a 
Norman  duke,  had  spent  in  exile  in  Normandy ;  and  with  his 
intimacy  with  "foreigners"  and  its  inevitable  consequences. 
The  invasion  of  Norman  favourites,  which  preceded  and  accom- 
panied his  accession  to  the  throne,  and  their  appointments, 
for  a  time,  to  the  chief  places  in  church  and  state,  led  to  the 
tightening  of  the  bonds  that  bound  England  to  the  Roman 
church,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  period  of  Latin  influence 
that  followed  the  coming  of  William,  Lanfranc  and  Anselm. 

The  development  of  the  old  vernacular  literature  was 
arrested  for  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  Hastings; 
and,  as  the  preservation  of  letters  depended  on  ecclesiastics, 
professed  scholars  and  monastic  chroniclers  of  foreign  extrac- 
tion, the  literature  of  England  for  practically  a  couple  of  cen- 
turies is  to  be  found  mainly  in  Latin.  Happily  for  England, 
her  connection  with  the  continent  became  intimate  at  a  time 
when  Paris,  "the  mother  of  wisdom,"  was  about  to  rise  to 
intellectual  dominance  over  Europe. 

Of  the  national  vernacular  literature  of  France,  at  the 
time  of  the  Conquest,  little  was  transplanted  to  English  soil; 
but,  in  the  two  centuries  that  followed,  the  cultivation  of 
romance,  aided  by  "matter"  that  had  passed  through  Celtic 
hands,  flourished  exceedingly  among  the  Anglo-Norman 
peoples  and  became  a  notable  part  of  English  literature. 

The  development  of  Old  English  Jiterature.,  as  we  have 
said,  was  arres'te'd.     It  was  by  no  means,  as  some  have  urged, 
^~ 165 


i66  The  Norman  Conquest 

lifeless  before  this  break  in  its  history ;  and  speculation  would  be 
futile  as  to  what  might  have  been  its  future,  had  there  been 
no  Norman  conquest.  Where  so  much  has  been  lost,  there  is 
no  safety  in  sweeping  generalisations,  based  upon  what  is 
left.  As  a  whole,  the  evidence  which  we  possess  shows  Old 
English  literature  to  have  been  richer  than  that  of  any  other 
European  nation  during  the  period  of  its  most  active  life; 
and,  though  there  was,  apparently,  throughout  Christian 
Europe,  a  lowering  of  letters,  in  which  England  shared,  during 
"the  gloom  and  iron  and  lead"  of  the  tenth  century,  yet  the 
lamps  of  learning  and  of  literature,  though  low,  were  not 
extinguished  in  this  island.  It  was  the  age  of  Dunstan,  a  lover 
,of  ballads  and  music  and  illuminated  missals  and  precious 
iewels  and  letters,  a  learned  saint,  a  dreamer  of  dreams,  a 
worker  in  metal,  the  reformer  of  Glastonbury,  a  statesman 
and  teacher  who  "  filled  all  England  with  light."  It  was,  as  w^e 
have  seen,  the  age  of  Aelfric,  in  whose  hands  Old  English  prose 
had  been  fashioned  from  the  condition  in  which  we  find  it  in 
the  early  days  of  the  Chronicle,  and  in  the  days  of  Alfred, 
into  an  instrument  capable  of  expressing  different  kinds  of 
thought  in  ways  of  lightness  and  strength.  And  it  was  the  age, 
certainly,  of  Tlie  Battle  of  Maldon  and  of  Brunanburh,  and, 
possibly,  of  Judith  also.  Old  English  poetry  had  proved  itself 
capable  of  expressing  with  notable  aptitude,  and  with  grave 
seriousness,  the  nobler  views  of  life. 

A  period  of  warfare  with  the  Danes  follows,  during  which 
monasteries  like  that  of  Cerne,  in  Dorset,  are  sacked,  and 
literature  wanes ;  but  there  is  evidence  that  the  national  spirit, 
fostered  by  the  beneficent  rule  of  Canute,  was  strong  in  Eng- 
land in  the  days  preceding  the  coming  of  the  Conqueror;  and 
it  is  but  reasonable  to  assume  that  this  spirit  would  not  have 
withered  away  and  become  a  thing  of  naught,  had  Harold  won, 
instead  of  lost,  the  battle  of  Hastings.  The  main  stream  of  its 
literary  expression  was  dammed  at  that  time,  and  portions  of 
it  were  turned  into  other,  and,  so  far  as  we  can  now  see,  into 
better,  because  more  varied,  channels;  but,  when  the  barriers 
were  gradually  broken  down,  and  the  stream  regained  freedom 
of  action,  it  was  not  the  source  that  had  been  vitally  altered— 
this  had  only  been  changed  in  ways  that  did  not  greatly  modify 
its  main  character — but,  between  altered  banks,  and  in  freshly 


The  Coming  Change  167 

wrought-out  channels,  the  old  waters  ran,  invigorated  by  the 
addition  of  fresh  springs. 

Into  what  the  folk-songs,  of  which  we  have  faint  glimmer- 
ings, were  about  to  develop,  had  there  not  been  an  interreg- 
num, we  know  not ;  but  the  literary  spirit  of  the  people,  though 
they  were  crushed  under  their  Norman  masters,  never  died  out ; 
it  had  little  or  no  assistance  at  first  from  the  alien  lettered 
classes;  and,  when  it  revived,  it  was  "with  a  difference." 

There  had  not  been  wanting  signs  of  some  coming  change. 
Already,  in  pre-Conquest  days,  there  had  been  a  tendency  to 
seek  some  "new  thing."     A  growing  sense  of  the  existence  of 
wonderful  things  in  the  east,  of  which  it  was  desirable  to  have 
some  knowledge,  had  led  an  unknown  Englishman  to  translate,—, 
the  story  of  Apollonius  of  Tyre  into  English.    'The  man^ellous    ' 
deeds  of  the  Lives  of  the  Saints  had  already  proved  that  a  taste     \ 
for  listening  to  stories,  if  not,  as  yet,  the  capacity  to  tell  them      ) 
with  conscious  literary  art,  grace  and  skill  was  in  existence.  ^ 
And,  in  addition  to  this,  we  learn  from  the  list  of  books  acquired 
by  Leofric  for  Exeter  cathedral,  sixteen  years  only  before  the 
battle  of  Hastings,  that  the  love  for  books  and  learning  which 
had  inspired  Benedict  Biscop  and  Dunstan  had  by  no  means 
died  out;  of  some  sixty  volumes,  many  were  in  English  and 
one  is  the  famous  "mycel  Englisc  boc"  "of  many  kinds  of 
things  wrought  in  verse,"  from  which  we  know  much  of  the  little 
we  do  know  concerning  Old  English  literature. 

The  facility  with  which  Englishmen  adopted  what  Normans 
had  to  give  was,  in  some  measure,  due  to  the  blood-relationship 
that  already  existed  between  the  tw^o  races.  Scandinavian 
seafarers,  mated  with  women  of  Gaul,  had  bred  a  race  possess- 
ing certain  features  akin  to  those  of  the  Teutonic  inhabitants 
of  England.  It  was  a  race  that,  becoming  "  French,"  adapted 
itself  rapidly  to  its  new  surroundings,  soon  forgetting  its 
northern  home  and  tongue;  and,  when  it  was  master  of  Eng- 
land, further  barriers  between  race  and  race  were  soon  broken 
down.  The  Norman  conquest  of  England  differed  altogether 
from  the  English  conquest  of  Britain.  The  earlier  conquest 
was  a  process  of  colonisation  and  gave  the  land  an  almost 
entirely  new  population,  with  entirely  new  thoughts  and  ways 
of  looking  at  things,  save  in  the  borderlands  of  the  "Celtic 
fringe";  the  later  brought  a  new  governing,  and  then  a  new 


1 68  The  Norman  Conquest 

trading,  class,  and  added  a  fresh  strain  to  the  national  blood 
without  supplanting  the  mass  of  the  people.  Intermarriage, 
that  would  begin,  naturally  enough,  among  Norman  serving- 
men  and  English  women,  spread  from  rank  to  rank,  receiving 
its  ultimate  sanction  when  Anselm  crowned  Matilda  as  Henry's 
queen.  Sooner  or  later  the  Norman,  whether  of  higher  or  of 
lower  degree,  adopted  England  as  his  country,  spoke  and 
acted  as  an  Englishman  and,  before  the  great  Charter,  that  is 
to  say,  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  battle  of  Hastings, 
when  the  French  homes  of  Normandy  and  Anjou  had  been  lost, 
the  mixture  of  the  invading  race  and  the  conquered  people 
was  approaching  completion.  The  more  stolid  native  had 
been  touched  with  "finer  fancies"  and  "lighter  thought"; 
the  natural  melancholy  of  the  Old  English  spirit  had  been 
wedded  to  the  gaiety  of  the  Norman;  England,  "meri  Inge- 
land,"  was  recognised  to  be 

a  wel  god  land,  ich  wene  ech  londe  best, 
Iset  in  the  on  ende  of  the  worlde  as  al  in  the  west : 
The  see  geth  him  al  aboute,  he  stond  as  in  an  yle 
Of  fon^  hii  dorre  the  lasse  doute — bote  hit  be  thorj  gyle 
Of  folc  of  the  sulve  ^  lond,  as  me  hath  iseye  jwile,'''  ^ 

in  language  that  irresistibly  recalls  the  "fortress  built  by 
Nature  for  herself,"  the  "happy  breed  of  men,"  the  "little 
world,"  the  "precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea,"  the  "blessed 
plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  England,"  of  Shakespeare. 
So  it  came  to  pass  that,  though,  as  the  immediate  result  of  the 
Conquest,  Norman-French  became  the  exclusive  language 
of  the  rich  and  courtly  nobles  and  ecclesiastics,  knights  and 
priests,  and  Latin  the  exclusive  language  of  learning — the 
conduits  thus  formed  tending  inevitably  to  trouble  the  isolated 
waters — yet  the  language 

in  the  country  places. 
Where  the  old  plain  men  have  rosy  faces, 
And  the  young  fair  maidens 
Quiet  eyes, 

and  among  the  serfs  and  the  outlaws  in  the  greenwood,  and 
"lowe  men"  generally,  was  the  unforbidden,  even  if  untaught, 

'    Of  foes  they  need  the  less  fear — unless  it  be  through  guile. 

2  same.  3  formerly.  *    Robert  of  Gloucester. 


The  Wisdom  of  the  East  ^69 

English  of  the  conquered  race.  And,  contrary  to  the  expecta- 
tion and,  perhaps,  the  desire  of  the  governing  class,  it  was  this 
language  which,  in  the  end,  prevailed. 

The  gain  to  English  literature  that  accrued  from  the  Nor- 
man conquest  in  three  directions  is  so  great  as  to  be  obvious 
to  the  most  superficial  observer.  |_The  language  was  enriched 
by  the  naturalisation  of  a  Romanic  vocabulary;  methods  of 
expression  and  ideas  to  be  expressed  were  greatly  multiplied 
by  the  incursion  of  Norman  methods  and  ideas;  and  the  cause 
of  scholarship  and  learning  was  strengthened  by  the  coming 
of  scholars  whose  reputation  was,  or  was  to  be,  European,  and 
by  the  links  that  were  to  bind  Paris  and  Oxford.     I 

In  a  less  obvious  way,  it  gained  by  the  consequent  inter- 
course with  the  continent  that  brought  our  wandering  scholars 
into  connection  with  the  wisdom  of  the  east.  It  is  not  to  be 
forgotten,  for  instance,  that,  for  three  or  four  hundred  years, 
that  is  to  say,  from  about  the  ninth  to  about  the  twelfth 
century,  Mohammadism,  under  the  rule  of  enlightened  caliphs 
in  the  east  and  in  the  west,  fostered  learning  and  promoted  the 
study  of  the  liberal  arts  at  a  time  w^hen  many  of  the  Christian 
kingdoms  of  Europe  were  in  intellectual  darkness.  Harun 
ar-Rashid  was  a  contemporary  of  Alcuin,  and  he  and  his  suc- 
cessors made  Baghdad  and  the  cities  of  Spain  centres  of  know- 
ledge and  storehouses  of  books.  The  Aristotelian  philosophy, 
which  had  so  commanding  an  influence  over  the  whole  of  the 
religious  thought  of  the  west  during  the  Middle  Ages,  was  known 
prior  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  chiefly  through 
Latin  translations  based  upon  Arabic  versions  of  Aristotle ;  and 
the  attachment  of  the  Arabs  to  the  study  of  mathematics  and 
astronomy  is  too  well  known  to  call  for  comment.  Our  own 
connection  with  Mohammadan  learning  during  the  period 
of  its  European  predominance  is  exemplified  in  the  persons 
of  Michael  Scot ;  of  Robert  the  Englishman  or  Robert  de  Retines 
who  first  translated  the  Coran  into  Latin ;  of  Daniel  of  Morley, 
East  Anglian  astronomer,  scholar  of  Toledo  and  importer  of 
books;  and  of  Adelard  or  Aethelard  of  Bath,  who,  in  many 
wanderings  through  eastern  and  western  lands,  acquired  learn- 
ing from  Greek  and  Arab,  who  translated  Euclid  and  who 
showed  his  love  of  the  quest  for  knowledge  in  other  than  purely 
mathematical  ways  in  his  philosophical  treatise  De  Eodem  et 


I70  The  Norman  Conquest 

Diver  so,  an  allegory  in  which  Philocosmia,  or  the  Lust  of  the 
World,  disputes  with  Philosophia  for  the  body  and  soul  of  the 
narrator. 

The  Christian  learning  of  the  west  received  fresh  impetus 
in  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  at  the  hands  of  Lanfranc, 
who  made  the  monastic  school  at  Bee  a  centre  famous  for  its 
teaching,  and  who,  when  he  came  to  England,  to  w^ork  for 
church  and  state,  did  not  forget  his  earlier  care  for  books 
and  learning.  It  was  under  Lanfranc's  direction  that  Osbern, 
the  Canterbury  monk,  wrote  his  lives  of  earlier  English  ecclesi- 
astics, of  St.  Dunstan  and  St.  Alphege  and  St.  Odo;  and  he 
gave  generously  to  the  building  of  St.  Albans,  a  monastery 
which,  under  the  abbacy  of  Lanfranc's  well-beloved  kinsman 
Paul,  encouraged  the  spirit  of  letters  in  its  specially  endowed 
scriptorium,  and  so  led  the  way  to  the  conversion  of  annalist 
into  historian  illustrated  in  the  person  of  Matthew  Paris. 

A  consideration  of  the  writings  of  Lanfranc  himself  falls 
outside  our  province;  they  consist  of  letters,  commentaries  and 
treatises  on  controversial  theology.  Prior  to  his  appointment 
as  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Lanfranc  had  been  mainly  respon- 
sible for  the  refutation  of  the  "spiritual"  views  concerning 
the  Eucharist  held  by  Berengarius,  who,  following  the  foot- 
steps of  John  Scotus  (Erigena)  opposed  the  doctrine  of  Real 
Presence.  Lanfranc's  deputation  helped  largely  to  strengthen 
the  universal  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation 
throughout  the  Roman  church;  and,  as  the  chief  officer  of  the 
English  church,  m  the  years  of  its  renovation  under  William, 
his  influence  could  but  tend  towards  placing  English  religious 
life  and  thought  and,  therefore,  English  religious  literature, 
more  in  harmony  with  the  religious  system  of  Europe. 

Lanfranc's  successor  in  the  see  of  Canterbury  w^as  his  fellow- 
countryman  and  pupil,  Anselm;  perhaps  less  of  a  statesman, 
but  a  greater  genius,  a  kindlier-natured  and  larger-hearted 
man  and  a  more  profound  thinker.  As  one  of  the  greatest  of 
English  churchmen,  who  fought  for  the  purity  and  liberty  and 
rights  of  the  English  church,  we  may  claim  Anselm  as  English, 
and  we  may  rejoice  at  the  place  given  him  in  the  Paradiso  in 
the  company  of  Bonaventura  and  John  Chrysostom  and 
Peter  "the  devourer"  of  books,  but  the  consideration  of  his 
writings,  also,  falls  rather  to  the  historian  of  religious  philosophy. 


I 


Norman  Gifts  171 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  the  result  of  Anselm's  fight  against 
kingly  tyranny  led  to  the  charter  of  Henry  I  and  so  prepared 
the  way  for  the  Great  Charter  that  followed  a  century  later 
he  must  be  mentioned  among  those  who  took  part  in  the  mak- 
ing of  England. 

The  reflection  in  English  literature  of  the  gradual  construc- 
tion of  this  new  England  will  be  seen  more  clearly  when  we 
have  passed  through  the  inter\'al  of  quiescence  that  prevailed 
in  vernacular  letters  after  the  Conquest.  The  literature  of 
church  and  state  and  scholarship  was  for  those  who  knew 
Latin;  and  the  literature  that  followed  the  invaders  was  for 
those  who  taught  French ;  the  struggle  for  supremacy  between 
native  and  alien  tongues  was  fought  out;  and,  when  the  first 
writers  of  Transition  English  appear,  it  is  seen  that  the  beaten 
Romance  has  modified  the  conquering  Teutonic.  The  early 
days  appear  to  be  days  of  halting  steps  and  curious  experiment ; 
and,  naturally,  the  imitation  of  foreign  models  seems  greater 
at  first  than  later,  when  the  naturalisation,  or,  rather,  the 
blending,  is  nearer  completion.  Even  the  manuscripts  of  these 
early  days,  in  their  comparatively  simple  character,  show 
that  the  vernacular  is  in  the  condition  of  a  "poor  relation." 
Writers  in  English  were  at  school  under  the  new  masters 
of  the  land,  whose  cycles  of  romance,  including  much  that  was 
borrowed  from  the  adopted  country,  and,  therefore,  much  that 
was  easily  assimilated,  afforded,  both  in  respect  of  form  and  of 
matter,  excellent  material  for  translation  for  many  a  year 
until,  in  fact,  the  clipped  wings  had  had  time  to  grow  again. 

As  before  hinted,  we  do  not  know  the  extent  of  what  we 
lost,  and  we  cannot,  with  any  advantage,  proceed  far  on  the 
road  of  aesthetic  comparison  between  old  and  new.  We  must 
be  content,  therefore,  to  recognise  to  the  full  the  gifts  of  the 
NoiTnan  race,  and  these  were  not  confined  to  the  making  of 
literary  English.  For,  as  an  outward  and  visible  sign,  still 
remaining  in  many  places  to  testify,  with  the  strengthening  of 
our  literature,  to  the  change  in  art  that  accompanied  the  change 
in  blood,  and  that  gave  expression  to  the  change  in  thought, 
there  stand  the  buildings  erected  throughout  the  land,  as 
William  of  Malmesbury  said,  "after  a  style  unknown  before." 

After  the  axe  came  the  chisel;  and  this  change  of  tool 
which  helps  us  to  follow  the  steps  that  mark  the  development 


^72  The  Norman  Conquest 

of  Anglo-Norman  architecture,  may  symbolise  the  develop- 
ment of  language  and  letters  in  England  under  Anglo-Norman 
kings,  a  development  that  had  begun  years  before  the  Con- 
queror had  landed.  When  inflections  had  been  well-nigh 
lopped  off,  and  the  language  had  been  made  more  copious  by 
additions  to  its  ornamental  vocabulary,  the  new  "smiths  of 
song" — whether  graceless  minstrel  or  ascetic  priest — were 
able  to  give  more  adequate  expression  to  the  work  of  their 
hands  and  to  branch  out  into  less  imitative  ways.  They  were 
beating  out  the  material  in  preparation  for  the  coming  of 
Chaucer. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Latin  Chroniclers    from    the  Eleventh  to 
the  Thirteenth   Centuries 

OF  all  the  literary  monuments  of  the  remarkable  revival 
of  learning  which  followed  the  coming  of  the  Normans 
and  which  reached  its  zenith  under  Henry  H,  the 
greatest  alike,  in  bulk  and  in  permanent  interest  and  value,  is 
the  voluminous  mass  of  Latin  chronicles  compiled  during  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  i^o  ample  is  the  wealth 
of  this  chronicle  literature,  and  so  full  and  trustworthy  is  its 
presentment  of  contemporary  affairs,  that  few  periods  in  our 
history  stand  out  in  such  clear  and  minute  relief  as  that  of 
the  Norman  and  Angevin  kings.  Priceless  as  these  documents 
are  to  the  modern  historian,  they  are  far  from  being  as  a  whole, 
the  colourless  records  which  concern  the  student  of  political 
and  constitutional  movements  alone.  Many  of  them  may 
have  but  little  charm  or  distinction  of  style,  and  may  appear 
to  be  nothing  better  than  laboriously  faithful  registers  of 
current  events.  They  all,  however,  after  their  quality  and 
kind,  bear  the  marks  of  a  common  inspiration,  and  the  meanest 
chronicler  of  the  time  felt  that,  in  compiling  the  annals  of  his 
own  country,  he  was  working  in  the  tradition  of  the  great 
historians  of  antiquity.  Some  few  of  the  chronicles  are  real 
literature,  and  show  that  their  writers  were  well  aware  that 
history  has  its  muse. 

While  a  scholarly  delight  and  an  honest  pride  in  their  art 
were  common  to  all  the  English  chroniclers  of  the  Norman 
and  Angevin  period,  not  a  few  of  them  found  an  additional 
incentive  in  royal  and  aristocratic  patronage.  Much  of  the 
activity  of  the  twelfth  century  historians  was  palpably  due 
to  the  favour  shown  to  men  of  letters  by  the  two  Henrys,  and 
the  personal  encouragement  of  princely  nobles  like  earl  Robert 

173 


174  Latin  Chroniclers 

of  Gloucester,  and  courtly  ecclesiastics  like  Alexander,  bishop 
of  Lincoln.  Some  of  the  monastic  writers  enjoyed  no  such 
direct  .patronage;  but  they  were  none  the  less  responsive  to 
the  demands  of  the  time.  They  not  only  felt  the  impulse  of 
the  new  learning — they  were  conscious  of  living  in  a  great 
age,  and  of  witnessing  the  gradual  establishment  in  England 
of  a  new  and  powerful  kingdom.  Nothing  is  more  signifi- 
cant than  the  way  in  w^hich  the  Anglo-Norman  chroniclers, 
whether  native  Englishmen  or  Normans,  domiciled  in  England, 
reflect  the  united  patriotic  sentiment  which  it  was  the  design 
of  Norman  statesmanship  to  foster.  Though  composed  in  a 
foreign  tongue,  these  chronicles  are  histories  of  England,  and 
are  written  from  a  national  English  standpoint.  It  was  under 
Henry  I,  whose  marriage  with  Matilda  seemed  to  symbolise 
the  permanent  union  of  the  two  peoples,  that  a  new  sense  of 
national  self-consciousness  began  to  grow  out  of  the  Norman 
settlement.  A  shrewd  obsen.^er  of  the  next  generation,  Walter 
Map,  tells  us  that  it  was  Henry  who  effectually  "united  both 
peoples  in  a  steadfast  concord."  ^  It  w^as  Henry's  reign  also 
that  witnessed  the  transfer  of  the  central  seat  of  Norman  power 
from  Normandy  to  England.  William  of  Malmesbury,  himself 
half-Norman,  half-English,  in  his  account  of  the  battle  of 
Tinchebray,  reminds  his  readers  that  it  was  fought  "on  the 
same  day  on  which  about  forty  years  before,  William  had  first 
landed  at  Hastings" — a  fact  which  the  chronicler  characteris- 
tically takes  to  prove  "the  wise  dispensation  of  God  that  Nor- 
mandy should  be  subjected  to  England  on  the  same  day  that 
the  Norman  power  had  formerly  arrived  to  conquer  that  king- 
dom. "2  In  other  words,  England  now  became  the  predominant 
partner  in  the  Anglo-Norman  kingdom,  and  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury chroniclers  are  fully  alive  to  the  meaning  of  the  change. 
As  the  dreams  of  a  great  Anglo-Norman  empire  began  to  take 
shape  in  the  minds  of  the  new  rulers  of  England,  and  came 
to  be  temporarily  realised  under  Henry  II,  the  English  histor- 
iographers rose  to  the  height  of  their  opportunities  with  patrio- 
tic ardour,  '^o  other  country  produced,  during  the  tw^elfth 
and  the  thirteenth  centuries,  anything  to  be  compared  with 
the  English  chronicles  in  variety  of  interest,  W'Calth  of  in- 
formation and  amplitude  of  range.     So  wide  is  their  outlook, 

^  De  Nugis  Curialium,  Dist.v,  Cap.  V.      2  Gesta  Regum  Anglorum'Bk.v. 


"Matter  of  Britain"  175 

and  so  authoritative  is  their  record  of  events,  that,  as  Stubbs 
observes,  "it  is  from  the  EngHsh  chroniclers  of  this  period  that 
much  of  the  German  history  of  the  time  has  to  be  written."  1 
The  new  England  had  become  conscious  of  her  power,  and  of 
her  growing  importance  in  the  international  economy  of  Europe. 
//>In  literature  the  most  signal  expression  of  that  conscious- 
ness is  the  work  of  our  Latin  chroniclers.  Thus,  however 
unattractive  much  of  this  chronicle  literature  may  be  to  the 
ordinary  reader,  there  belongs  to  all  of  it  the  human  interest 
of  having  been  written  under  the  pressure  of  great  events  and 
the  stimulus  of  a  glowing  national  feeling. 

(/Even  apart  from  the  patriotic  incentives,  there  were  other 
influences  at  work  during  the  twelfth  century  which  made  for 
the  study  and  the  writing  of  history.  The  Norman  settlement 
in  England  synchronised  with  a  movement  which  shook  all 
western  Christendom  to  its  foundations.  The  crusades  not 
only  profoundly  stirred  the  feelings  of  Europe — they  ser\^ed 
indirectly  to  quicken  the  imagination  and  stimulate  the  curios- 
ity of  the  western  races  as  nothing  had  done  for  centuries. 
Intercourse  with  the  east,  and  the  mingling  together  of  differ- 
ent tribes  in  the  crusading  armies,  brought  about  a  "  renascence 
of  wonder"  as  far-reaching  in  some  of  its  effects  as  the  great 
renascence  itself.  The  twelfth  century  is,  above  all,  the 
age  of  the  birth  of  modern  romance.  The  institutions  of 
chivalry,  the  mystic  symbolism  of  the  church,  the  international 
currency  of  popular  fabliaux,  the  importation  of  oriental  stories  . 
of  magic  and  wizardry — all  contributed  to  the  fashioning  of  the  f 
fantastic  creations  of  the  medieval  romances.  And  of  the 
romantic  cycles  none  came  to  have  so  speedy  and  triumphant 
a  vogue  as  that  which  was  named,  originally  in  France,  ."the 
matter  of  Britain."  This  "matter  of  Britain"  had  its  begin- 
ning as  a  formative  influence  in  European  literature,  in  the 
work  of  an  Anglo-Norman  writer,  who,  while  professing  to 
draw  his  mformation  from  a  suspiciously  cryptic  source  and 
frequently  giving  obvious  rein  to  his  ow^n  imagination,  assumes 
none  the  less  the  gravity  and  the  deliberate  mannei  of  an 
authentic  chronicler.  Geoffrey  of  ]\Ionmouth,  ambitious  of 
supplying  what  previous  writers  had  failed  to  tell  about  the 
kings  of  Britain  before  the  coming  of  the  English,  wTote  a 

»  Lectures  on  Medieval  and  Modern  History,  p.  125. 


uJ 


1 7^  Latin  Chroniclers 

chronicle  which  had  all  the  charm  and  novelty  of  a  romance 

f  of  adventure.     King  Arthur,  as  a  romantic  hero,  is  Geoffrey's 

'  creation.     Hence,  the  most  readable  Latin  chronicle  of  the 

■twelfth  century  is  one  that  has  the  least  real  claim  to  that  title. 

But  the  History  of  the  Kings  of  Britain  is  no  more  to  be  ruled  out 

of  a  place  m  the  chronicle  literature  of  England  than  it  is  to 

be  ousted  from  its  assured  pre-eminence  as  the  fountain-head 

of    Arthurian    romance.     For    Geoffrey's    legends    not    only 

wrought  their  spell  upon  innumerable  poets  and  imaginative 

writers,  but  continued  for  generations  to  disturb  the  waters 

of  history,  and  to  mystify  a  long  line  of  honest  and  laborious 

chroniclers. 

Geoffrey's  History,  whatever  opinion  may  be  held  as  to  its 
author's  methods  and  motives,  well  illustrates  in  its  general 
style  and  manner  the  ambitious  designs  of  the  greater  Anglo- 
Norman  chroniclers.  Those  of  them  who  aspire  to  write  his- 
tory, as  distinguished  from  mere  contemporary  annals,  are 
studious  both  of  literary  ornament  and  of  the  symmetry  and 
proportion  of  their  narrative.  Compiling  and  borrowing,  as 
Geoffrey  professes  to  do,  from  previous  chroniclers,  they  all 
endeavour  to  impart  some  new  life  and  colour  to  their  materials. 
;  They  take  the  great  Bede  as  their  native  master  in  the  art  of 
historical  writing.  But,  for  their  literary  models,  they  look 
beyond  him,  and  seek,  like  William  of  Malmesbury,  to  "  season 
their  crude  materials  with  Roman  art."  ^  Even  minor  chron- 
iclers, like  Richard  of  Devizes,  who  confine  themselves  to  the 
events  of  their  own  time,  are  fond  of  adorning  their  pages 
with  classical  allusions  or  quotations.  Henry  of  Huntingdon 
is  even  more  adventurous,  and  enlivens  his  narrative  with 
frequent  metrical  effusions  of  his  own.  Most  of  them  endeav- 
our, according  to  their  ability,  to  be  readable,  arming  them- 
selves, as  Roger  of  Wendover  does,  against  both  "the  listless 
hearer  and  the  fastidious  reader"  by  "presenting  something 
which  each  may  relish,"  and  so  providing  for  the  joint  "profit 
and  entertainment  of  all."  2 

But,  far  more  than  their  embellishments  of  style,  their 
fulness  and  accuracy  of  detail  and  their  patriotic  motives, 
what  gives  life  and  permanent  interest  to  the  Anglo-Norman 
chronicles  is  the  sense  which  they  convey  of  intimate  relation- 

>  Preiace  to  Gesta  Regum  Anglorum.      ^  Freiace  to  Flowers  of  History. 


Characteristics  of  the  Chroniclers         ^n 

ship  with  great  men  and  great  affairs.  Even  those  chroniclers 
who  do  not  pretend  to  write  history  on  the  larger  scale,  and  only 
provide  us  w4th  what  Ralph  of  Diceto,  in  describing  his  own 
work,  calls  "outlines  of  histories,"  imagines  historiarum,  for 
the  use  of  some  future  philosophic  historian — even  they  suc- 
ceed in  conveying  to  us  something,  at  least,  of  the  animation  of 
the  stirring  age  in  w^hich  they  lived.  They  describe  events 
of  which  they  themselves  were  eye-witnesses;  they  preserve 
documents  to  which  they  had  special  privilege  of  access; 
they  record  impressions  derived  from  direct  contact  with  great 
statesmen,  warriors  and  ecclesiastics;  they  retail  anecdotes 
gathered  from  the  cloister,  the  market-place  and  the  court. 
For  even  the  monastic  "chroniclers  were  not  the  mere  recluses 
of  the  popular  imagination.  They  were,  in  their  way,  men  of 
the  world,  who,  though  theiyiselves  taking  no  active  part  in 
public  affairs,  lived  in  close  intercourse  with  public  men. 
The  great  abbeys,  such  as  those  of  Malmesbury  and  of  St. 
Albans,  were  open  houses,  constantly  visited  by  the  mighty 
ones  of  the  land.  William  of  Malmesbury  tells  us  how  his  own 
monastery  was  distinguished  for  its  "delightful  hospitality," 
Avhere  "guests,  arriving  every  hour,  consume  more  than  the 
inmates  themselves."  ^  Even  the  most  remote  of  monastic 
writers,  such  as  William  of  Newburgh,  in  his  secluded  Yorkshire 
priory,  kept  in  such  close  touch  with  contemporary  aft'airs 
as  fully  to  realise  their  dramatic  significance.  "  For  in  our 
times,"  he  writes  in  the  preface  to  his  English  History,  "such 
great  and  memorable  events  have  happened  that  the  negli- 
gence of  us  moderns  were  justly  to  be  reprehended,  should  they 
fail  to  be  handed  down  1^  eternal  memory  in  literary  monu- 
ments." Other  monkish  writers,  like  Matthew  Paris  in  a 
later  generation,  enjoyed  the  royal  confidence,  and  occasionally 
wrote  under  royal  command.  Moreover,  not  all  the  chroniclers 
were  monks.  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  Roger  of  Hoveden, 
Ralph  of  Diceto  and  the  author  of  the  chronicle  so  long  wrongly 
ascribed  to  Benedict  of  Peterborough — not  to  mention  writers 
like  Giraldus  Cambrensis  and  Walter  Map,  who  have  left  behind 
them  records  scarcely  distinguishable  from  contemporary 
chronicles — were  all  men  who  lived  in  intimate  association 
with  the  court.     So  much  store,- indeed,  came,  in  time,  to  be 

'  Gesta  Re  gum  Anglorwn,  Bk.  v. 


i/S  Latin  Chroniclers 

set  upon  the  records  of  the  chroniclers  that  they  became 
standard  authorities  to  which  kings  and  statesmen  appealed 
for  confirmation  of  titles  and  the  determination  of  constitutional 
claims.  The  conditions  under  which  they  were  composed, 
and  the  importance  which  they  once  had  as  documents  of 
state,  are  alone  more  than  sufficient  sanction  for  the  provision 
made  by  "the  Treasury,  under  the  direction  of  the  Master  of 
the  Rolls,"  for  the  publication  of  those  editions  in  which  they 
can  best  be  studied  by  the  modern  reader. 

"Of  the  several  schools  of  Englisn  medieval  history," 
writes  Stubbs,i  "the  most  ancient,  the  most  fertile,  the  longest 
lived  and  the  most  widely  spread  was  the  Northujnbrian." 
At  its  head  stands  the  great  name  of  Bede,  the  primary  author- 
ity and  the  pattern  of  most  of  the  Latin  historians  of  our  period. 
The  first  conspicuous  representative  of  the  northern  school 
of  chroniclers  in  the  tw^elfth  century  is  Simeon,  precentor  of 
the  monastery  of  Durham,  and  he,  like  so  many  historio- 
graphers after  him,  makes  Bede  the  foundation  of  the  early 
part  of  his  history.  His  second  source  of  information,  cover- 
ing the  period  from  the  death  of  Bede  down  to  the  beginning 
of  the  ninth  century,  was  the  lost  Northumbrian  annals  known 
to  us  through  Simeon  alone.  From  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century  down  to  1121  he  borrows  his  matter  almost  entirely 
from  the  chronicle  of  Florence  of  Worcester  and  the  first  contin- 
uator  of  the  latter.  The  rest  of  Simeon's  narrative,  extending 
to  the  year  1129,  probably  represents  his  own  independent 
work.  Little  is  known  of  Simeon's  life,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  determine  whether  he  was  the  actual  compiler,  or  merely 
the  editor,  of  the  chronicle  which  ^ars  his  name.  His  work, 
however,  had  a  high  repute  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
his  fame  was  second  only  to  that  of  Bede  among  the  writers 
of  the  Northumbrian  school.  Simeon's  chronicle  was  con- 
tinued down  to  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Stephen  by  two  priors 
of  Hexham.  The  elder  of  the  two,  Richard,  wrote  an  account 
of  the  Acts  of  King  Stepheyi,  and  the  Battle  of  the  Standard, 
w^hich  contains  much  original  information.  His  son,  John, 
brought  the  narrative  down  to  the  year  11 54,  and  is  an  inde- 
pendent authority  of  considerable  value.  Another  north- 
countryman,  the  canonised  Ailred  or  Ethelred,  a  Cistercian 

'   Preface  to  Roger  of  Hoveden's  Chronicle,  Rolls  Series. 


I 


The  Northern  School  i79 

monk  of  Rievaulx,  claims  a  place  among  the  many  chroniclers 
who  wrote  of  the  battle  of  the  Standard.  His  account  is 
neither  so  full  nor  so  trustworthy  as  that  of  Richard  of  Hexham, 
but  is  somewhat  more  ambitious,  in  that  it  professes  to  give 
after  the  manner  of  the  classical  historians,  the  speeches  of  the 
rival  leaders  before  the  encounter.  For  a  brief  period  about 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  there  was,  in  Northumbria 
as  elsewhere,  a  curious  break  in  the  activity  of  the  chroniclers. 
But,  in  the  next  generation,  tw^o  writers  who  worthily  uphold 
the  traditions  of  the  northern  school  appear  in  William  of| 
Newburgh  and  Roger  of  Hoveden.  William  confines  himself 
to  his  own  times ;  but  Roger  attempts  a  comprehensive  history 
of  several  centuries,  and,  gathering  his  materials  from  the 
best  available  authorities,  gives  us  what  Stubbs  calls  "the 
full  harvest  of  the  labours  of  the  Northumbrian  historians." 
The  first  Latin  chronicler  of  any  importance  who  belongs 
to  southern  England  is  Florence  of  Worcester,  already  men- 
tioned as  one  of  Simeon  of  Durham's  main  sources.  Florence's 
work  is  notable  as  being  the  first  attempt  in  England  at  a  uni- 
versal history  beginning  with  the  creation  and  embracing 
within  its  compass  all  the  nations  of  the  known  world.  But, 
as  the  title  of  his  chronicle — Chronicon  ex  Chronicis — frankly 
indicates,  Florence  is  not  much  more  than  a  laborious 
compiler  from  the  works  of  others ;  and  he  took  as  the  basis 
of  the  early  portions  of  his  narrative  the  universal  chronicle  of 
Marianus  Scotus,  an  Irish  monk  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Marianus,  in  his  turn,  is,  so  far  as  English  history  is  concerned, 
only  a  compiler  from  Bede  and  the  Old  EngUsh  Chronicle.  He 
brings  his  record  of  evenliB  down  to  the  year  1082,  but  it  is  so 
fragmentary  and  perfunctory  in  its  treatment  of  English  affairs 
as  to  give  Florence  abundant  opportunities  for  interpolation 
and  addition.  Florence's  account  of  his  own  times,  which 
closes  with  the  year  1117,  possesses  much  independent  value, 
and  was  largely  drawn  upon  by  subsequent  chroniclers.  It  is 
less  valuable,  however,  than  its  continuation  by  John,  another 
monk  of  Worcester,  from  iii7toii4i.  A  second  continuation, 
down  to  1 152,  was  based  mainly  upon  the  work  of  Henry  of 
Huntingdon.  The  task  of  still  further  extending  Florence's 
chronicle  seems  to  have  become  a  special  concern  of  the  monks 
of  St.  Edmundsbury,    for  it  is  to  two  inmates  of   that  house 


i8o  Latin  Chroniclers 

that  we  owe  two  other  additions  to  it  which  continue  the  re- 
cord, without  a  break,  down  to  the  very  end  of -the  thirteenth 
century. 

Neither  Simeon  of  Durham  nor  Florence  of  Worcester 
can  be  called  a  historian  in  any  high  sense.  Both  are,  at  best, 
but  conscientious  annalists,  making  no  effort  either  to  present 
events  in  their  wider  relations  of  cause  and  effect,  or  to  adorn 
their  narrative  with  any  studied  literary  graces.  The  earlier 
portions  of  the  chronicle  which  bears  Simeon's  name  are, 
indeed,  embellished  with  frequent  poetical  quotations,  but  the 
work,  as  a  whole,  is  as  barren  of  literary  ornament  as  that  of 
Florence.  Literature  of  a  somewhat  richer  colour,  and  history 
of  a  higher  order,  are  found  in  the  writings  of  two  of  their  con- 
temporaries, one,  like  them,  a  pure  Englishman,  the  other  a 
Norman  born  on  English  soil — Eadmer  and  Ordericus  Vitalis. 
Eadmer,  the  follower  and  intimate  friend  of  Anselm,  wrote 
in  six  books  a  history  of  his  own  times  down  to  the  year  1 1 2  2 
— Historia  Novormn  in  Anglia — which  is  full  of  fresh  and  vivid 
detail.  In  his  preface  Eadmer  justifies  the  historian  who 
confines  himself  to  a  narrative  of  contemporary  events;  the 
difficulty  of  obtaining  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  past  had 
convinced  him  that  none  deserved  better  posterity  than  he 
who  wrote  a  faithful  record  of  the  happenings  of  his  own  life- 
time. His  immediate  purpose,  he  tells  us,  is  to  give  an 
account  of  the  relations  of  his  master  Anselm  with  William  II 
and  Henry  I,  and  especially  of  the  disputes  about  the  in- 
vestiture. But,  as  he  anticipates,  his  task  will  oblige  him  to 
illustrate  at  many  points  the  history  of  England  before,  during 
and  after  the  investiture  quarrel.  While  the  main  interest  of 
Eadmer's  work  is  ecclesiastical,  and,  in  the  last  two  books, 
turns  largely  upon  the  affairs  of  the  see  of  Canterbury,  it 
throws  much  valuable  light  upon  the  general  political  and 
social  conditions  of  the  time.  Written  with  what  William 
of  Malmesbury  calls  "  a  chastened  elegance  of  style," ^  Eadmer's 
History  is  distinguished  most  of  all  by  its  design  and  sense  of 
proportion.  Eadmer  is  almost  modern  in  his  deliberate  limi- 
tation of  himself  to  a  period  and  a  special  subject  upon  which 
he  could  speak  as  first-hand  authority.  His  example  in  this 
respect  was  not  without  its  effect  upon  more  than  one  his- 

>   Preface  to  Gesta  Regum  Anglorum. 


Eadmer  and  Orderic  i8i 

toriographer  of  the  next  generation.  Richard  of  Devizes  and 
the  author  of  the  Acts  of  Stephen  are  chroniclers  who  make 
up  for  the  brevity  of  their  narratives  by  the  graphic  force 
which  belongs  only  to  a  contemporary  record.  In  addition 
to  his  History  Eadmer  wrote  a  Latin  life  of  Anselm,  and  upon 
all  that  concerns  the  character  and  the  work  of  that  great 
prelate  there  is  no  more  trustworthy  authority. 

Ordericus  Vitalis,  the  son  of  Norman  parents  but  born  in 
Shropshire  in  1075,  was  a  writer  of  much  more  ambitious 
scope  than  Eadmer.  His  voluminous  Ecclesiastical  History, 
borrowing  its  title  from  Bede's  great  work,  extends  from  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era  down  to  the  year  1141.  It  is  in 
thirteen  books,  and  represents  the  labour  and  observation  of 
some  twenty  years  of  the  writer's  hfe.  It  is  a  characteristic 
product  of  the  cloister.  The  church,  and  all  that  concerns  it, 
are,  throughout,  uppermost  in  Orderic's  mind,  and  determine 
his  standpoint  and  design  as  a  historian.  But  he  had  sufficient 
curiosity  and  knowledge  of  the  world  to  gather  and  place  on 
record  a  vast  amount  of  information  about  mundane  affairs. 
Taken  over  to  Normandy  to  be  educated  at  the  early  age  of  ten, 
he  spent  his  life  as  a  monk  of  St.  Evroul ;  but  he  was  not  without 
opportunities  of  travel,  and  he  paid  at  least  one  visit  to  Eng- 
land for  the  express  purpose  of  collecting  material  for  his 
History.  Although  he  is  often  inaccurate  in  his  chronology, 
and  confusing  in  the  arrangement  of  his  matter,  Orderic  is  one 
of  our  standard  historical  authorities  for  the  Norman  period. 
He  is  especially  valuable  for  the  information  he  gives  as  to 
the  condition  of  Normandy  itself  during  the  eleventh,  and  part 
of  the  twelfth,  century,  and  his  History  deals  even  more  with 
continental  than  with  English  affairs.  Yet  he  always  prides 
himself  upon  his  English  birth;  he  even  called  himself  an 
Englishman,  and  could,  in  Freeman's  words,  "at  once  admire 
the  greatness  of  the  Conqueror  and  sympathise  with  the  wrongs 
of  his  victims."  Orderic's  very  defects  of  arrangement  and 
order  as  a  chronicler  were  the  result  of  a  curiosity  and  a  range 
of  interest  which  add  much  to  the  value  of  his  w^ork  as  a  minute 
and  varied  contemporary  record.  He  tells  us  much  that  is  not 
found  elsewhere  about  the  social  conditions  of  his  time,  about 
the  monastic  profession  and  even  about  the  occupations, 
tastes,  pastimes  and  personal  appearance    of  prominent  men. 


y 


1^2  Latin    Chroniclers 

His  style  is,  in  many  places,  highly  rhetorical.  Of  it,  as  a 
whole,  "an  English  reader,"  writes  dean  Church,  "  may  best 
form  an  idea  by  combining  the  Biblical  pedantry  and  doggerel 
of  a  Fifth-monarchy  pamphlet  of  the  seventeenth  century 
with  the  classical  pedantry  of  the  most  extravagant  burlesque 
of  Dr.  Johnson's  English. "^ 

Contemporary  with  Eadmer  and  Orderic,  William  of 
-j(^  I  Malmesbury  is  a  much  greater  historian,  and,  to  the  literary 
student,  a  far  more  attractive  writer,  than  either.  Milton's 
opinion,  that  "both  for  st^^le  and  judgment"  William  is  "by 
far  the  best  writer  of  all"  the  twelfth  century  chroniclers, ^ 
still  holds  good.  William,  as  many  incidental  confessions  in 
his  History  show,  had  high  ambitions  as  an  author,  and  aspired 
to  restore  to  the  historian's  art  the  dignity  and  the  splendour 
with  which  it  had  been  invested  by  the  illustrious  Bede. 
His  design  is  to  tell,  artistically  yet  critically,  all  that  is  known 
about  his  country's  history  from  the  first  coming  of  the  English 
and,  especially,  as  he  informs  us  in  his  preface,  to  "  fill  up  the 
chasm  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-three  years"  after  Bede 
which  Eadmer  had  left  altogether  unnoticed  in  his  Historia 
Novorum.  William's  chronicle  is  in  two  parts.  The  first, 
divided  into  five  books,  is  called  a  History  of  the  Kings  of 
England,  and  extends  from  a.d.  449  to  1 127.  The  second  part, 
entitled  Historia  Novella  or  Modern  History,  is  in  three  books, 
and  brings  the  narrative  down  to  the  year  1142.  These  his- 
tories represent  but  a  small  portion  of  William's  entire  literary 
work,  for  he  was  one  of  the  most  prolific  writers  of  his  time ; 
his  other  productions  include  a  history  of  the  prelates  of  Eng- 
land, a  life  of  St.  Wulfstan,  and  a  history  of  the  church  of 
Glastonbury.  William  of  Malmesbury  possessed  many  of  the 
highest  qualifications  of  a  historian ;  he  had  learning,  industry, 
judgment  and  a  wide  knowledge  of  the  world.  He  was,  for  his 
day,  a  considerable  traveller,  and  was,  both  by  temperament 
and  training,  a  discrifninating  as  well  as  an  inquisitive  student 
of  life  and  character.  He  is  thus  singularly  free  from  the 
prejudices  and  the  narrow  standards  of  the  cloister.  Although 
he  himself  claims  that  his  mixed  blood  ^  is  a  guarantee  of  his 

>   St.  Anslem,p.  140.        2   History  of  England,  Bk.  iv,  p.  172  (1st  ed.  16^0). 

3  In  the  preface  to  the  third  book  of  his  History  WiUiam  says  that  "the 
blood  of  the  two  peoples  flows  in  [his]  veins,"  and  that  he  is  therefore  qualified 
to  "steer  a  middle  course  "  between  racial  partisians. 


William  of  Malmesbury  183 

impartiality,  he  has  not  escaped  the  suspicion,  among  modern 
critics,  of  having  been  something  of  a  time-server.  He  had, 
however,  a  thoroughly  disinterested  love  of  history  as  a  study 
and  as  an  art ;  and  the  task  of  writing  the  history  of  England 
presented  itself  to  him  as  a  patriotic  duty,  all  the  more  clearly 
incumbent  upon  him  because  of  the  "criminal  indolence"  of 
those  who  might  have  continued  the  work  of  Bede.^ 

Bede,  then,  is  William's  greatest  exemplar,  and  the  fount  of 
his  inspiration — Bede,  with  whom  "was  buried  almost  all 
knowledge  of  history  dowm  to  our  ow^n  times,"  and  whose 
praises  William  protests  that  he  has  "neither  the  abilities  nor 
the  eloquence"  adequately  to  blazon. ^  For  materials  of  the 
earlier  portions  of  his  History  William  states  2  that  he  searched 
far  and  wide ;  and,  while  he  borrowed  from  nearly  every  known 
w^ork  of  his  time,  he  evidently  draws  upon  other  sources  which 
have  not  been  identified.  But  he  by  no  means  borrows  indis- 
criminately. He  sifts  and  selects  his  material,  and  cautions 
his  readers  against  accepting  the  testimony  of  his  authorities 
too  implicitly.  That  he  was  not,  however,  so  very  much  in 
advance  of  his  time  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he,  in  company 
with  more  credulous  chroniclers  gravely  records  marv^els  and 
seemingly  supernatural  occurrences  as  authentic  historical 
events.  The  evidence  of  a  respectable  eye-witness  is,  in  most 
of  these  cases,  sufBcient  w^arrant  for  unquestioning  belief. 
Anecdotes,  also,  of  every  kind,  seem  to  have  had  a  peculiar 
charm  for  William,  and,  at  the  end  of  his  third  book,  he 
quaintly  excuses  his  fondness  for  including  them  in  his  History 
by  saying  that,  "if  I  am  not  too  partial  to  myself,  a  variety 
of  anecdote  cannot  be  displeasing  to  any  one,  unless  he  be 
morose  enough  to  rival  the  superciliousness  of  Cato."  To  the 
modern  reader,  who  looks  for  literary  entertainment  as  much 
as  for  authentic  history,  William's  ingenuous  habits  of  reminis- 
cence, of  quotation,  of  anecdotal  digression  and  of  sententious 
comment  add  much  to  the  personal  charm  and  vivacity  of  his 
narrative. 

He  is  at  his  best,  however,  when  he  brings  all  his  powers 
of  rhetoric  and  his  faculty  of  pictorial  w^riting  to  bear  upon  the 
description  of  some  great  event  or  stirring  public  movement. 
His  graphic  account  of  the  first  crusade,   for  example,   has 

»  Bk.  I,  ch.  3.  2  Bk.  II,  prol. 


tS4  Latin  Chroniclers 

about  it  a  spaciousness  and  a  wealth  of  colour  which  all  but 
rival  the  glowing  periods  of  Gibbon. 

This  ardent  love  not  only  inspired  the  continental  provinces 
but  even  all  who  had  heard  the  name  of  Christ,  whether  in  the  most 
distant  islands  or  savage  countries.  The  Welshman  left  his  hunting, 
the  Scot  his  fellowship  with  vermin,  the  Dane  his  drinking- party, 
the  Norwegian  his  raw  fish.  Lands  were  deserted  of  their  husband- 
men :  houses  of  their  inhabitants :  even  whole  cities  migrated.  There 
was  no  regard  to  relationship :  affection  to  their  country  was  held  in 
little  esteem:  God  alone  was  placed  before  their  eyes.  Whatever 
was  stored  in  granaries,  or  hoarded  in  chambers,  to  answer  the  hopes 
of  the  avaricious  husbandmen  or  the  covetousness  of  the  miser, 
all,  all  was  deserted:  they  hungered  and  thirsted  after  Jerusalem 
alone. 

Even  this  brief  passage  serves  to  show  that  William  was  a 
wTiter  who  could  make  the  dry  bones  of  history  live,  and  who 
had  an  artist's  instinct  for  the  salient  and  significant  features 
of  the  panorama  of  events  which  the  historian  has  to  depict 
upon  his  canvas.  The  muse  of  history  needs,  for  her  highest 
ser\dce,  the  aid  of  the  imagination ;  and  William  of  Malmesbury's 
pre-eminence  among  the  twelfth  century  chroniclers  is  due 
to  the  art  which  enabled  him  to  give  a  picturesque  setting 
to  his  narrative  without  any  sacrifice  of  accuracy  in  cir- 
cumstantial detail.  For  he  still  holds  his  place  among  his- 
torians as  a  high  authority,  not  quite  so  impartial,  perhaps,  as 
he  professes  to  be  in  his  judgments  of  individuals,  but  singu- 
larly clear  and  trustworthy  in  his  presentment  of  events.  Will- 
iam, after  all,  wrote  under  the  direct  patronage  of  a  great  noble, 
and  it  was  only  natural  that  he  should  have  paid  some  defer- 
ence to  the  wishes  and  interests  of  earl  Robert  of  Gloucester. 
Yet,  even  in  the  Historia  Novella,  written  at  Robert's  request  to 
describe  the  struggle  between  king  Stephen  and  the  empress 
Maud,  in  w^hich  Robert  himself  played  a  prominent  part,  the 
substantial  truth  of  William's  narrative  remains  unassailed. 

Of  the  early  twelfth  century  chroniclers,  Henry  of  Hunting- 
don enjoyed,  for  generations,  a  popular  repute  second  only  to 
that  of  William  of  Malmesbury.  Modern  criticism,  however, 
has  largely  destroyed  Henry's  claims  to  rank  as  a  first-rate 
historical  authority,  and  in  neither  style,  accuracy,  nor  fulness 


Henry  of  Huntingdon  185 

of  detail  is  he  worthy  of  any  serious  comparison  with  William. 
Henry  himself  appears  to  have  rated  his  powers  at  quite  as 
high  a  value  as  William's;  for  he  prefaces  his  chronicle  with  a 
floridly  rhetorical  and  ambitious  disquisition  upon  the  "prerog- 
atives" of  history.  But  he  possessed  neither  the  learning  nor 
the  patient  industry  of  W^illiam,  and  his  studied  endeavours 
after  rhetorical  ornament  only  serve  to  accentuate  his  preten- 
tiousness by  the  side  of  his  great  monastic  compeer.  Henry 
was  a  secular  clerk,  who  lived  under  the  patronage,  first  of 
Robert  Bloet,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  afterwards  of  his  suc- 
cessor, Alexander  of  Blois.  It  was,  as  he  tells  us,  by  com- 
mand of  Alexander  that  he  wrote  his  History  of  the  English, 
and  he  probably  compiled  the  greater  part  of  it  between  1 1 2  5 
and  1 130.  The  work  was  dedicated  to  Alexander;  and  the 
prefatory  letter  ends,  characteristically,  with  an  invocation 
in  verse  both  of  the  Divine  blessing  and  of  the  approbation  of 
his  episcopal  patron.  The  entire  History,  frequently  revised 
and  extended,  ends  w^th  the  year  11 54.  Its  earlier  portions 
are  borrowed,  with  many  embellishments,  from  Bede  and  the 
Old  English  Chronicle.  In  many  places  Henry  simply  trans- 
lates from  the  old  English  annals,  and  among  his  translations 
is  a  metrical  version,  though  much  curtailed,  of  the  famous 
song  on  The  Battle  of  Brunanburh.  Henry  prided  himself  on 
his  accomplishments  in  verse,  and  his  History  is  decorated 
with  many  poetical  passages.  Of  his  work,  as  a  whole,  the  best 
that  can  be  said  is  that  it  shows  some  sense  of  design,  and  of 
proportion  in  its  execution ;  he  treats  of  the  history  of  England 
up  to  his  time  as  dividing  itself  naturally  into  the  four  periods 
of  the  Roman,  the  Saxon,  the  Danish  and  the  Norman  occupa- 
tions. It  is  when  he  comes  to  deal  with  the  Norman  dominion 
and  especially  with  the  events  of  his  own  time,  that  he  is  most 
disappointing.  At  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  book  he 
states  that,  after  having  so  far  relied  upon  either  "ancient 
writers  or  common  report,"  he  is  about  to  "deal  with  events 
which  have  passed  under"  his  "own  obserx'ation,  or  have  been 
told  to"  him  "by  eye-witnesses."  Neither  in  the  seventh  nor 
in  the  eighth  book  do  we  fmd  much  to  justify  the  expectation 
thus  raised.  Henry  was  a  facile  writer,  but  a  perfunctory  his- 
torian. "  He  was  ambitious,  but  not  laborious ;  literary,  but 
not  exact;  intelligent,  but  not  penetrating.     He  formed  large 


t86  Latin  Chroniclers 

projects,  but  was  too  indolent  to  execute  them  satisfactorily. "i 
Henry's  rhetorical  pages  are  brought  to  an  appropriate  close 
with  a  glowing  peroration,  in  verse,  celebrating  the  accession 
of  King  Henry  H.  What  appears  to  have  been  at  one  time 
intended  to  stand  as  the  eighth  book  of  the  History  is  a  treatise 
On  the  Contempt  of  the  World — a  letter,  addressed  to  a  friend 
named  Walter,  upon  the  fortunes  of  "the  bishops  and  the 
illustrious  men  of  his  age."  This  work,  both  the  title  and  the 
motive  of  which  remind  us  of  more  imposing  literary  achieve- 
ments by  greater  men,  contains  many  vivid  portraits  of  Henry 
of  Huntingdon's  famous  contemporaries. 

A  chronicler  who  is  as  great  an  authority,  for  the  reign  of 
which  he  treats,  as  either  William  of  Malmesbury  or  Henry 
of  Huntingdon,  is  the  anonymous  author  of  the  Acts  of  Stephen 
(Gesta  Stephani).  Not  even  William  himself  surpasses  this 
writer  in  accuracy  and  vividness  of  detail.  He  is  a  palpable 
partisan  of  Stephen,  and  has  been  supposed  by  some  to  have 
been  the  king's  confessor.  Nothing,  however,  better  illustrates 
the  general  trustworthiness  and  impartiality  of  the  twelfth 
century  chroniclers  than  a  comparison  of  the  narrative  of  this 
historian  with  those  of  William  of  Malmesbury  and  Henry  of 
Huntingdon.  The  Gesta  Stephani  covers  much  the  same 
ground  as  the  Historia  Novella  of  William ;  yet  though  the  two 
works  were  composed  from  opposite  standpoints,  they  differ 
little  in  their  presentment  of  the  essential  facts  of  the  history 
of  the  time. 

William  of  Malmesbury  claimed,  as  we  have  seen,  the  patron- 
age of  Robert,  earl  of  Gloucester;  Henry  of  Huntingdon  that  of 
Alexander,  bishop  of  Lincoln.  The  favour  of  both  these  mag- 
nates, and,  if  we  are  to  trust  the  evidence  of  a  MS.  preserved  at 
Berne,  that  of  King  Stephen  himself,  was  invoked  by  the  chron- 
icler who  enjoys  the  dubious  distinction  of  having  been  among 
British  writers  the  greatest  disturber  of  the  waters  of  history. 
Could  he  have  foreseen  the  influence  which  he  was  destined 
to  exercise  over  the  poets  of  England,  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth 
would  doubtless  have  been  quite  content  with  the  prospect  of 
forfeiting  the  confidence  of  critical  historians.  Indeed,  it  is 
difficult  to  believe,  on  any  supposition,  that  the  History  of  the 
Kings  of  Britain  was  written  as  a  serious  contribution  to  authen- 

1  Thomas  Arnold  preface  to  Rolls  edition. 


Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  187 

tic  history.  Geoffrey's  manner  only  too  obviously  betrays 
him.  Just  as  William  of  JMalmesbury  is  anxious  to  "  fill  up  the 
chasm"  between  Bede  and  Eadmer,  so  Geoffrey  professes  to 
explore  and  map  out  a  still  more  obscure  period,  namely  that 
of  "the  kings  who  dwelt  in  Britain  before  the  incarnation  of 
Christ,"  and  especially  of  "Arthur  and  the  many  others  who 
succeeded  him  after  the  incarnation."  It  so  happened  that  a 
document  was  placed  in  his  hands  which  "  set  forth  the  doings 
of  them  all  in  due  succession  and  order  from  Brute,  the  first  king 
of  the  Britons,  onward  to  Cadwaladr,  the  son  of  Cadwallo,  all 
told  in  stories  of  exceeding  beauty."  This  document  was  a  cer- 
tain "most  ancient  book  in  the  British  tongue,"  which  was 
supplied  to  him  by  Walter,  archdeacon  of  Oxford.  No  other 
contemporary  chronicler  seems  to  have  had  access  to  this  mys- 
terious book,  and  no  amount  of  subsequent  research  has  been 
able  to  discover  it.  Geoffrey  himself  evidently  looked  upon  its 
contents  as  his  own  exclusive  secret ;  for,  in  the  epilogue  to  his 
History,  he  expressly  warns  William  of  Malmesbury  and 
Henry  of  Huntingdon,  who  could  write  competently  enough 
about  the  kings  of  the  English,  not  to  meddle  with  the  kings  of 
the  Britons,"  inasmuch  as  they  have  not  the  book  in  the  British 
speech  which  Walter  brought  over  from  Britanny." 

All  this  affectation  of  mystery,  however,  does  not  prevent 
Geoffrey  from  openly  commending  his  work  to  the  favourable 
notice  of  the  two  great  men  whose  confidence  and  encourage- 
ment William  and  Henry  respectively  enjoyed.  The  main 
body  of  his  History  is  dedicated  to  earl  Robert  of  Gloucester, 
while  the  seventh  book,  consisting  of  the  famous  prophecies  of 
Merlin,  is  prefaced  by  an  almost  fulsomely  laudatory  letter 
addressed  to  Alexander  of  Lincoln.  Geoffrey  was  thus  deter- 
mined to  lose  nothing  of  the  prestige  and  credit  to  be  derived 
from  aristocratic  patronage;  and  his  dedications  only  confirm 
the  assumption  that  he  imitates  the  practices  and  assumes  the 
pose  of  an  authentic  chronicler  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of 
mystifying  his  readers.  For  Geoffrey's  History  is,  on  the  last 
analysis,  a  prose  romance,  and,  in  its  Arthurian  portions  in 
particular,  a  palpable  excursion  in  fiction.  One  need  not 
believe  that  the  entire  work  is,  in  the  words  of  William  of  New- 
burgh,  a  tissue  of  "impudent  and  shameless  lies."  Even  the 
reference  to   "the    British  book"   cannot   altogether  be   re- 


l^ 


^^^  Latin  Chroniclers 

garded  as  a  ruse  for  the  deception  of  the  ingenuous  reader. 
Geoffrey  doubtless  drew  upon  some  documents,  possibly  Welsh, 
which  have  since  been  lost.  He  borrowed  all  he  could  from 
Bede  and  Nennius;  he  probably  borrowed  more  from  floating 
British  traditions.  What  is  even  more  certain  is  that  he  in- 
vented a  great  deal.  It  is  impossible  to  read  the  later  books 
of  the  History  without  feeling  that  Geoffrey,  when  he  had  em- 
barked upon  the  history  of  Merlin  and  of  Arthur,  was  fully 
conscious  of  his  opportunities  of  romantic  dilatation.     Arthur 

\  was  a  British  prince  capable  of  being  exalted  into  a  heroic 
figure  who  should  overshadow  both  Alexander  and  Charlemagne. 
These  two  potentates  were  already  the  titular  heroes  of  profit- 
ably worked  romantic  cycles.  Why  should  Britain  not  have 
its  romantic  "matter,"  as  well  as  Rome  and  France?  Read 
in  the  light  of  the  general  literary  history  of  its  time,  and  of  its 

I  immediate  and  immense  popularity,  Geoffrey's  History  can  be 
adequately  explained  only  as  the  response  of  a  British  writer, 
keenly  observant  of  the  literary  tendencies  of  the  day,  to  the 
growing  demand  for  romance.  How  well  he  succeeded  in  his 
design  appears  from  William  of  Newburgh's  complaint  that  he 
had  "  made  the  little  finger  of  his  Arthur  stouter  than  the  back 
of  Alexander  the  Great." 

The  History  of  the  Kings  of  Britain  was  complete  in  the 
form  now  known  to  us  by  1148  at  the  latest;  but  there  is  evi- 
dence that  it  existed  in  some  fonn  as  early  as  11 39.  A  letter 
from  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  addressed  to  one  Warinus,  other- 
wise unknown,  and  prefixed  to  the  Chronicle  of  Robert  de 
Monte,  1  gives  an  abstract  of  a  '  'big  book  "  by  "  Geoffrey  Arthur, ' ' 
which  Henry  discovered  in  1139  at  the  abbey  of  Bee  in  Nor- 
mandy. Henry  himself  had  long  been  anxious  to  know  some- 
thing about  the  kings  of  the  Britons;  and  "to  his  amazement 
he  found"  at  Bee  "a  written  record"  of  their  deeds,  including 
the  history  of  Arthur,  "whose  death  the  Britons  deny,  and 
still  continue  to  look  for  his  return."  Henry's  letter  contains 
no  mention  of  Merlin ;  but  whether  then  incorporated  in  th.eHis- 
tory  or  not,  the  Prophecies  must  have  been  written  before  1 139, 
for  Ordericus  Vi  talis  quotes  from  them  in  the  twelfth  book 
(ch.  47)  of  his  History,  which  was  composed  in  1136  or  1137. 
By  the  year  1152  Geoffrey's  work  seems  to  have  been  well 

>   Chronicles  of  Stephen{Rolls  Series),  iv,  65. 


Geoffrey's  Fame  189 

known,  and  to  have  won  him  favour  in  high  places,  as  he  was 
then  consecrated  bishop  of  St.  Asaph.  He  died  in  1155.  The 
fame  of  his  History  had  spread  even  before  his  death ;  for  Wace, 
and,  probably,  Geoffrey  Gaimar,  had  begun  to  translate  it  into 
Anglo-Norman  verse  before  1 1 5  5 . 

In  England  a  long  line  of  chroniclers,  in  both  prose  and 
verse,  from  Layamon  and  Robert  of  Gloucester  down  to  Graf- 
ton and  Holinshed,  accepted  Geoffrey  in  all  good  faith  as  a 
revealer  of  "the  marvellous  current  of  forgotten  things"; 
w^hile  a  host  of  poets,  great  and  small,  have  been  constantly 
haunted  by  his  fables.  Two  hundred  years  after  his  death 
his  repute  was  such  that,  on  the  strength  of  his  use  of  the 
Brutus  legend,  Chaucer  gave  him  a  high  place  in  his  Hoits  of 
Fame.  With  Homer  and  Statius,  Dares  and  Dictys  and  Guido 
de  Colonna,  "EngHsh  Gaufride"  stands  on  an  iron  pedestal, 

besy  for  to  here  up  Troye. 

In  a  later  age  both  Spenser  and  Drayton  sang  his  praises; 
while  even  Wordsworth  could  not  withhold  a  tribute  to  "the 
British  record  long  concealed,"  where 

We  read  of  Spenser's  fairy  themes, 
And  those  that  Milton  loved  in  youthful  years : 
The  sage  enchanter  Merlin's  subtle  schemes. 
The  feats  of  Arthur  and  his  knightly  peers.* 

But  Geoffrey  has  exacted  still  greater  homage  from  the  poets. 
Lear  and  Cymbeline  and  Sabrina,  "  virgin  daughter  of  Locrine," 
are  names  that  link  his  memory  for  ever  with  the  two  supreme 
poetical  geniuses  of  England.  Here,  indeed,  is  a  distinction 
which  the  greatest  of  chroniclers  might  have  coveted ;  and  it  is 
enough  to  mark  the  History  of  the  Kings  of  Britain  as  the  most  i*J 
significant  literary  product  of  the  twelfth  century. 

Geoffrey,  however,  succeeded  in  deluding  so  many  honest 
chroniclers  who  followed  him  that,  in  modern  times,  he  has 
been  altogether  proscribed  from  the  company  of  sober  histo- 
rians. Even  before  the  twelfth  century  w^as  out,  his  credit  had 
come  to  be  gravely  questioned.  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  who  had 
himself  no  mean  gift  for  the  artistic  manipulation  of  the  legend- 
ary and  the  man,^ellous,  is  one  of  Geoffrey's  severest  detractors. 
According  to  Gerald,  a  certain  Welshman  named  Meilyr  was 

'  Arte  gal  and  Elidure. 


190  Latin  Chroniclers 

reported  to  have  an  extraordinary  familiarity  with  unclean 
spirits,  and  they  never  responded  to  his  call  in  greater  numbers 
than  when  Geoffrey's  book  was  placed  on  his  bosom.  Gerald, 
as  is  well  known,  had  a  strong  sense  of  humour,  and,  probably 
all  he  means  to  imply  is  that  Geoffrey  had  over-reached  him- 
self in  the  art  of  romance.  It  is  otherwise  with  William  of 
Newburgh.  He  regarded  Geoffrey  as  one  who  had  deliberately 
and  flagrantly  profaned  the  sacred  functions  of  the  historian, 
and  devotes  the  entire  preface  of  his  chronicle  to  a  vehement 
denunciation  of  Geoffrey's  motives  and  to  an  exposure  of  his 
fabrications. 

This  severe  preface  has  contributed  as  much  as  anything  to 
the  high  repute  in  which  William  of  Newburgh  is  held  as  a 
critical  historian.  Freeman's  description  of  him  as  "  the  father 
of  historical  criticism" ^  has  often  been  repeated,  but  scarcely 
seems  deserved  when  we  compare  his  actual  achievement  with 
that  of  his  greater  namesake  of  Malmesbury.  For  William  of 
Newburgh  belongs  to  that  group  of  modest  chroniclers  who  are 
content  with  treating  a  limited  period,  and  describe,  mainly, 
the  events  of  their  own  lifetime.  His  History  extends  from  the 
Conquest  to  the  year  1 198 ;  but  the  narrative  down  to  the  time  of 
Stephen  is  so  compressed  as  to  make  the  work,  in  effect,  an 
account  of  the  reigns  of  Stephen  and  Henry  II.  For  the  latter 
reign  there  are  few  better  authorities.  His  work,  as  a  whole, 
forms  the  best  single  commentary  upon  the  history  of  the 
twelfth  century  left  us  by  any  writer  of  his  day.  For  William's 
chronicle  is  no  mere  bare  record  of  events,  but  an  ordered  and 
critical  presentment  of  the  affairs  of  his  time,  with  due  regard 
to  their  cause  and  effect.  His  remoteness  from  the  court  and 
the  metropolis  doubtless  enabled  William  of  Newburgh  to  main- 
tain an  attitude  of  impartiality  impossible  to  chroniclers  thrown 
into  close  contact  with  the  greater  actors  in  the  drama  of  con- 
temporary events.  At  any  rate,  the  work  of  no  twelfth-century 
chronicler  is  marked  by  a  more  transparent  honesty  of  purpose, 
by  greater  independence  of  judgment,  or  by  more  acute  esti- 
mates of  men  and  their  motives.  William  writes  in  a  clear, 
straightforward  style ;  less  studious  of  artistic  effect  and  literary 
ornament  than  his  namesake  of  Malmesbury,  he  is  inspired  by  a 
similar,  if  not  a  greater,  desire  for  accuracy.     Like  his  prede- 

»  Contemporary  Review,  vol.  xxxiii  (1878),  p.  216. 


William  of  Newbur^h  191 

cesser,  he  venerates  the  memory  and  the  example  of  Bede, 
"whose  wisdom  and  integrity  none  can  doubt  "  ;  and,  following 
that  historian's  pious  motives,  he  hopes  that  his  own  labours 
will  form  some  "  contribution,  however  scanty,  to  the  treasure- 
house  of  the  Lord." 

William  of  Newburgh  was  a  contemporary  of  the  brilliant 
galaxy  of  scholars  who  flourished  in  the  full  Hght  of  the  encour- 
agement given  to  learning  and  letters  at  the  court  of  Henry  II. 
But,  Hving  in  the  comparative  seclusion  of  his  monastery,  he  is 
not  quite  of  them,  and  may  be  regarded  rather  as  a  continua- 
tor  of  the  honourable  traditions  of  the  historical  school  of  the  / 
north.    In  particular,  he  is  one  of  the  most  trustworthy  author-  ^ 

ities  for  a  period  of  some  twenty  years,  after  the  turn  of  the 
twelfth  century,  of  which  we  have  scarcely  any  contemporary 
record.  1  For  the  English  history  of  the  years  11 53 — 4,  and 
especially  for  the  foreign  policy  of  the  early  years  of  Henry  11' s 
reign,  our  best  contemporary  authority  is  a  chronicler  who  lived 
and  wrote  in  Normandy,  Robert  de  IMonte  or,  as  he  calls  himself, 
Robert  of  Torigni.  He  compiled  a  comprehensive  record  of 
events  from  the  close  of  the  first  Christian  century  down  to  1 186, 
and  is  mdebted  for  much  of  his  account  of  purely  English  affairs 
to  Eadmer  and  Henry  of  Huntingdon.  The  troubles  of  King 
Stephen's  reign  appear  to  have  had  a  paralysing  effect  upon  the 
chroniclers  in  England ;  and  it  is  not  until  the  height  of  Henry 
H's  power  that  they  begin  once  more  to  give  us  a  full  and  vi\-id 
account  of  contemporary  affairs.  The  historian's  art  flourished 
anewin  the  warmth  of  the  general  enthusiasm  for  learning  \Ahich 
made  the  England  of  Henry's  time  the  paradise  of  scholars.  In 
palace  and  abbey,  in  the  full  glare  and  bustle  of  the  court  no  less 
than  in  the  bookish  atmosphere  of  the  monastic  cell,  men  were 
infected  by  a  common  ardour  of  intellectual  enterprise  and 
literary  achievement.  In  close  touch  with  the  court  were  men 
like  Gilbert  FoHot  and  Richard  Fitz-Neale;  Ralph  of  Diceto, 
who  was  dean  of  St.  Paul's  during  Fitz-Neale's  episcopate,  and 
Ranulf  de  Glanville,  whose  name  is  associated  with  one  of  the 
earliest  and  most  valuable  treatises  on  the  laws  and  customs 
of  England,  though  the  real  author  of  it  was,  more  probably,  his 
nephew,  Hubert  Walter;  Giraldus  Cambrensis  and  Walter  ]\Iap, 
Gervase  of  Tilbury  and  Peter  of  Blois.     In  remoter  haunts, 

»   See  Stubbs,  Preface  to  Roger  of  Hoveden,  Rolls  Series,  p.  xl. 


^92  Latin  Chroniclers 

though  having  frequent  opportunities  of  intercourse  with  men 
of  action  and  affairs,  were  Gervase  of  Canterbury  and  Nigel 
Wireker,  John  of  Salisbury  and  Richard  of  Devizes,  Benedict  of 
Peterborough  and  William  of  Newburgh  and  Roger  of  Hoveden. 
Altogether,  there  was  in  the  country,  as  Stubbs  says,  "such 
supply  of  writers  and  readers  as  would  be  found  nowhere  else 
in  Europe,  except  in  the  University  of  Paris  itself." 

Several  of  these  names  are  of  the  first  importance  in  the  list 
of  our  Latin  chroniclers.  That  of  Benedict  of  Peterborough 
is  associated  w^ith  the  most  authoritative  chronicle  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  II,  but  only  (as  is  now  known)  on  the  strength  of  the 
fact  that  one  of  the  extant  MSS.  of  the  work  was  transcribed 
under  his  order.  Benedict,  however,  was  by  no  means  a  mere 
director  of  other  men's  literary  labours,  for  he  is  known  to  have 
either  written  or  edited  accounts  of  the  passion  and  the  miracles 
of  Becket.  The  author  of  the  chronicle  so  long  ascribed  to 
him  still  remains  undiscovered.  Begun  in  1 1 7  2 ,  the  work  bears . 
in  the  main  all  the  marks  of  a  contemporary  narrative,  and 
includes  several  important  documents.  Stubbs  holds  that  the 
internal  evidence  is  sufficient  to  prove  not  only  that  the 
chronicle  was  not  by  Benedict,  but  that  it  is  not  the  work  of 
a  monastic  writer  at  all. 

It  has  not  even  in  its  most  disjointed  portion  the  disorderly  form, 
the  disproportionate  details,  the  unimportant  memoranda,  the 
generally  undigested  character,  of  monastic  annals.  It  displays 
no  propension  to  monastic  institutions,  or  to  those  principles  and 
persons  that  were  especially  favoured  by  monks.  The  author  did 
not  even  trouble  himself  to  compose  an  original  account  of  Becket's 
martyrdom.  Whatever  positive  indications  are  to  be  found  point 
to  a  member  of  the  king's  court  rather  than  to  a  monk,  or  even  a 
secular  churchman.' 

Stubbs 's  conjecture  that  the  chronicle  may  have  been  the 
work  of  Richard  Fitz-Neale,  and  is  a  transcript  of  that  writer's 
lost  Tricolumnis,  "merely  altered  from  its  inconvenient  tri- 
partite shape"  has  not  found  much  acceptance  among  scholars. 
Fitz-Neale,  who  was  treasurer  of  England  from  11 68 — 98,  and 
bishop  of  London  from  1 189 — 98,  is  best  known  as  the  author  of 
the  famous  Dialogus  de  Scaccario,  or  Dialoiiue  of  the  Exchequer. 
That  work,  written  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue,  in  two  books, 

'    Preface  to  edition  in  Rolls  Series,  p.  Ivi. 


Roger  of  Hoveden  ^93 

between  the  master  and  the  pupil,  is  one  of  the  chief  sources 
of  our  knowledge  of  constitutional  principles  and  practice  in 
England  before  the  Great  Charter;  it  "  stands  out  as  an  unique 
book  in  the  history  of  medieval  England,  perhaps  in  the  history 
of  medieval  Europe."  ^ 

The  chronicle  ascribed  to  Benedict  forms,  with  some  slight 
alterations  and  additions,  one  of  the  most  substantial  portions 
of  the  ambitious  historical  compilation  attempted  by  Roger  of 
Hoveden.  The  chroniclers  generally  had  little  scruple  about 
thus  transcribing,  and  embodying  in  their  own  works,  the  writ- 
ings of  their  predecessors;  it  was,  indeed,  held  among  the  mon- 
astic annahsts  to  be  a  perfectly  legitimate,  not  to  say  a  necessary, 
practice.  Thus  Matthew  Paris,  the  greatest  monastic  historian 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  makes  the  compilations  of  two  of  his 
predecessors  at  St,  Albans  the  nucleus  of  those  parts  of  his 
Chronica  Major  a  which  deals  with  events  before  his  own  time. 
Roger  of  Hoveden  not  only  borrowed  the  so-called  Benedict 
chronicle  almost  in  its  entirety,  but  made  use  of  everything  that 
he  could  find  from  the  hands  of  the  northern  chronicles.  In 
the  first  part  of  his  work,  extending  from  732  to  1148,  he  copies 
from  a  Durham  compilation,  based  upon  the  narratives  of 
Simeon  and  of  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  which  is  known  as  the 
Historia  post  Bedam.  His  main  source  from  1148  down  to 
1 1 69  is  the  chronicle  of  IMelrose.  The  third  part,  extending  to 
the  year  1192,  is  substantially  "Benedict  of  Peterborough," 
illustrated  by  several  new  documents;  the  final  portion,  ending 
with  the  year  1201,  is  Roger's  own  work.  Roger  was  a  man 
of  affairs,  and  had  exceptional  opportunities  for  watching  the 
development  of  public  events.  He  was  at  one  time  in  attend- 
ance upon  Henry  H  in  France;  he  subsequently  held  public 
office,  as  justice  itinerant  of  the  forests.  It  is  disappointing, 
however,  to  find  in  Roger's  Chronicle  few  of  the  intimate  per- 
sonal revelations  which  might  be  expected  in  the  narrative  of 
one  who  had  such  opportunities  of  intercourse  with  the  leading 
men  of  his  time.  Roger  makes  up  to  some  extent  for  this 
reticence  by  the  compass  of  his  narrative ;  for  the  later  portions 
of  his  chronicle  include  not  only  a  survey  of  English  affairs 
during  the  reign  of  Henry  II  and  Richard  I,  but  a  fairly  com- 
prehensive history  of  Europe  during  the  same  period. 

»   Pollock  and  Maitland's  History  of  English  Law,  vol.  i,  2nd  ed.  p.  161. 
VOL.  I — 13. 


194  Latin  Chroniclers 

"Well  illustrated  as  the  reigns  of  Henry  II  and  Richard 
are,"  says  Stubbs,i  "  one  side  of  their  character  would  be  imper- 
fectly known,  and  some  of  the  crises  of  their  policies  would  be 
almost  mexplicable,"  without  Ralph  of  Diceto.  Ralph  was 
another  chronicler  whose  public  life  and  position  brought  him 
into  close  contact  with  the  great  men  of  his  time,  and  gave  him 
access  to  the  best  sources  of  information.  He  was  for  many 
years  archdeacon  of  Middlesex,  and,  from  the  year  i  i8o  until  his 
death,  about  1202,  held  the  deanery  of  St  Paul's.  "Diceto" 
appears  to  have  been  an  artificial  Latin  name  adopted  by  Ralph 
to  signify  his  association  with  some  place,  probably  French, 
which  had  no  proper  Latin  name  of  its  own.  His  chief  work  is 
entitled  Imagines  Historiarmn,  or  Outlines  of  Histories,  extend- 
ing from  the  year  1148  down  to  1202.  Robert  de  Monte's 
chronicle  forms  the  basis  of  his  narrative  down  to  1172 ;  from 
that  year  begin  his  own  original  memoranda,  which  are  of 
especial  value  as  contemporary  records  from  1183  onwards. 
Ralph  is  one  of  the  most  sober  and  straightforward  of  the 
chroniclers,  and  is  little  given  to  gossip  or  rhetorical  decoration. 
His  work  is  somewhat  deficient  in  orderly  arrangement,  and  its 
chronology  is  not  always  to  be  relied  upon.  Ralph,  however, 
had  much  of  the  insight  of  the  historian  who  seeks  to  analyse 
and  to  account  for,  as  well  as  to  record,  public  events  and  move- 
ments, and  he  was  a  shrewd  judge  of  character  and  motive.  His 
chronicle  is  illustrated  by  many  important  contemporary  docu- 
ments, to  which  his  position  gave  him  special  means  of  access. 

Of  the  several  other  chroniclers  who  wrote  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  twelfth,  and  the  opening  years  of  the  thirteenth, 
century,  only  a  passing  mention  need  be  made.  Gervase  of 
Canterbury,  who  died  about  12 10,  is  chiefly  remembered  as  an 
ecclesiastical  historian,  and  as  one  of  the  standard  authorities 
on  the  contemporary  history  of  the  see  to  which  he  belonged. 
One  of  his  works,  entitled  Gesta  Re  gum,  which  is  of  some  value 
as  illustrating  the  reign  of  John,  perpetuates  the  Brutus  legend 
to  which  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  had  given  so  startling  a  cur- 
rency. A  more  important  authority  for  king  John's  reign  is 
Ralph,  abbot  of  the  Cistercian  abbey  of  Coggeshall,  whose 
Chronicon  Anglicanum  (1066 — 1223)  contains,  among  other 
things,  a  full  and  well-informed  account  of  Richard  I's  crusade. 

»  Preface  to  vol.  n  of  edition  of  Ralph  de  Diceto  in  Rolls  Series. 


Jocelin  of  Brakelond  ^95 

That  crusade  has  been  described  by  several  chroniclers,  but  by 
none  more  graphically  than  by  a  monkish  writer  whose  History 
of  King  Richard  I  is  one  of  the  briefest  of  the  many  contem- 
porary narratives  penned  in  the  twelfth  century.  Its  author, 
Richard  of  Devizes,  has,  however,  stamped  upon  his  modest 
essay  in  history  the  impress  of  a  personality  w^hich  is  altogether 
absent  from  many  more  ambitious  productions.  His  work  has 
a  real  literary  interest,  on  account  both  of  the  author's  fondness 
for  classical  quotations  and  rhetorical  ornament  and  of  the 
vivid  and  picturesque  force  of  his  narrative.  In  a  flowery 
letter  of  dedication,  addressed  to  Robert,  prior  of  the  church 
of  Winchester,  Richard  states  that  he  has  deliberately  chosen 
a  limited  period  for  himself,  leaving  a  more  comprehensive 
survey  of  events  to  those  "who  produce  greater  works."  "  My 
narrative,"  he  says,  "is  for  the  living";  and  he  writes  with  a 
dramatic  instinct  and  an  eye  to  pictorial  effect  not  unworthy 
of  a  modern  journalist.  No  chronicle  gives  us  a  more  vivid 
picture  of  the  general  social  condition  of  England  in  Coeur  de 
Lion's  time,  or  of  the  pageant  of  events  in  which  the  king  took 
paramount  part.  The  persecutions  of  the  Jews,  in  particular, 
are  described  with  a  terrible  faithfulness  which  reflects  the 
author's  own  avowed  hatred  of  the  race. 

Social  life  in  England  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
and  especially  the  internal  life  and  economy  of  the  monasteries 
are  portrayed  with  intimate  knowledge  in  the  celebrated  chron- 
icle of  Jocelin  of  Brakelond.  Jocelin  has  had  the  good  fortune, 
denied  to  the  more  ambitious  chroniclers  of  great  affairs  of  state, 
to  engage  the  attention  of  a  brilliant  modern  writer,  and  will 
continue  to  be  known  through  Carlyle's  Past  and  Present  to 
thousands  of  readers  who  will  never  have  the  curiosity  to  read 
his  actual  Latin  record.  Quite  apart,  however,  from  the  ad- 
ventitious importance  it  has  thus  gained,  Jocelin's  account  of 
the  deeds  of  Abbot  Sampson  and  his  community  at  St.  Ed- 
mundsbury  is  of  unique  historical  value  for  the  light  it  throws 
upon  the  organisation  of  monastic  institutions  and  of  their 
relations  to  the  social  and  industrial  life  of  the  common  people 

The  life  and  habits  of  a  different  section  of  society  have  been 
illustrated,  in  an  almost  equally  vivid  way,  by  several  of  the 
scholars  who  flourished  in  and  around  the  court  of  Henry  II. 
John  of  Salisbury  and  Peter  of  Blois,  Gervase  of  Tilbury  and 


19^  Latin  Chroniclers 

Nigel  Wireker,  and,  above  all,  Walter  Map  and  Gerald  of  Wales, 
have  left  behind  them  documents  which  bear,  in  some  respects, 
even  more  of  the  very  "  form  and  pressure  "  of  the  time  than  the 
chronicles  themselves.  The  Polycraticus  of  John  of  Salisbury, 
the  letters  of  Peter  of  Blois,  the  Otia  ImperiaLia  of  Gervase  and 
the  poems  of  Nigel  Wireker,  throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the 
studies  and  the  pastimes,  the  intrigues  and  the  scandals,  the 
humours  and  the  passions  of  those  who  dwelt  in  the  high 
places  of  both  state  and  church.  Of  all  these  writers  none 
has  contrived  to  blend  information  and  entertainment  more 
successfully  than  Giraldus  Cambrensis.  A  scholar  trained 
at  Paris,  an  insatiably  curious  student  of  men  and  books  and 
every  form  of  odd  lore,  a  fighter  and  an  intriguer  to  his  finger- 
tips, an  inveterate  gossip,  yet  a  man  capable  of  high  ideals 
and  far-reaching  schemes  of  public  policy,  the  intimate  friend 
of  kings  and  statesmen,  popes  and  prelates,  yet  withal  a  pas- 
sionate lover  of  his  own  native  little  Wales — Gerald  is  one  of 
the  most  romantic  figures  in  all  medieval  literature.  The  most 
stirring  episode  in  his  life  was  the  struggle  in  which  he  engaged, 
as  he  tells  us,  "  for  the  honour  of  Wales"  ;  and  is  still  deservedly 
beloved  among  his  countrymen  as  the  devoted  champion  of  one 
of  the  most  creditable  of  lost  causes  and  impossible  loyalties. 
But  his  enduring  title  to  fame  rests  upon  the  writings  which, 
alike  for  brilliancy  of  style  and  for  variety  of  interest,  remain 
unsurpassed  among  the  Anglo-Norman  literature  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries. 

A  greater  renown,  however,  in  literary  history  generally  has 
been  enjoyed  by  Gerald's  friend,  and,  probably,  fellow-country- 
man, Walter  Map.  Were  it  possible  to  prove  to  demonstration 
Map's  authorship  of  the  great  Arthurian  romances  so  commonly 
associated  with  his  name,  there  could  be  no  question  about  his 
claim  to  rank  as  the  greatest  literary  genius  who  appeared  in 
England  before  Chaucer.  But  the  claim  made  on  behalf  of 
Map  to  the  authorship  of  these  imaginative  works  rests  on  very 
slender  evidence.  Even  the  authenticity  of  his  equally  cele- 
brated Goliardic  poems  is  open  to  grave  question.  The  De 
Nugis  Curialium,  or  book  0/  Courtiers'  Trifles,  is,  undoubtedly, 
his.  It  was  probably  composed  by  instalments,  and  forms 
a  sort  of  common-place  book  in  which  Map  seems  to  have 
jotted  down  from  time  to  time,  both  shrewd  reflections  upon 


Matthew  Paris  i97 

men  and  things,  and  pleasant  anecdotes  to  divert  the  vacant 
mind.  Of  the  strictly  historical  portions  of  the  work,  the  most 
valuable  are  the  accounts,  in  the  first  book,  of  some  of  the  her- 
etical sects  which  had  sprung  up  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  the 
reflections,  which  take  up  the  whole  of  the  fifth  book,  upon  the 
character  and  achievements  of  the  Anglo-Norman  kings.  The 
fourth  book  includes,  in  company  with  some  lively  tales,  the 
celebrated  letter,  well  known  to  the  Wife  of  Bath's  fifth  hus- 
band, from  Valerius  to  Rufinus,  upon  the  folly  of  marrying 
a  wife.  The  whole  work  is  a  medley  of  such  diverse  and  curious 
ingredients — satire,  gossip,  fairy-lore,  folk-tales  and  snatches 
of  serious  history — as  to  make  us  easily  believe  that  its  author 
was,  as  Gerald  hints,  one  of  the  most  versatile  and  witty  talkers 
in  the  court  circles  of  that  eager  and  inquisitive  age. 

The  thirteenth  century  is,  emphatically,  the  golden  age  of 
the  monastic  historians.  At  their  head  stands  Matthew  Paris, 
the  greatest  of  all  our  medieval  chroniclers ;  but  his  work  only 
represents  the  crowning  literary  achievement  of  an  enthusiasm 
and  an  industry  that  inspired  every  considerable  monastery  in 
the  land.  The  annals,  most  of  them  nameless,  of  Burton, 
of  Winchester,  of  Waverly,  of  Dunstable,  of  Osney,  of  Worces- 
ter— all  testify  to  the  assiduity  of  monkish  scribes  in  compiling, 
revising,  and  adding  to  the  stores  of  historical  material  accum- 
ulated in  their  respective  houses.  Invaluable,  however,  as 
these  chronicles  are  to  the  student  of  political  and  social  his- 
tory, they  possess  little  interest  as  literature. 

But,  at  the  powerful  monastery  of  St.  Albans,  there  arose 
a  school  of  historians  as  brilliant  as  that  which  had,  in  the 
north,  closed  with  Roger  of  Hoveden.  This  school  produced 
in  Matthew  Paris  a  writer  who,  both  in  his  conception  of  the 
historian's  art  and  in  the  force  and  picturesqueness  of  his 
style,  surpasses  all  the  chroniclers  of  the  twelfth  century.  The 
historians  of  St.  Albans  possessed  exceptional  advantages. 
The  wealth  of  the  abbey,  its  accommodation  and  equipment  as 
an  ideal  home  of  learning,  its  position  on  the  Great  North  Road, 
and  its  proximity  to  the  capital,  marked  it  out  as  the  chief 
centre  of  monastic  culture  in  the  thirteenth  century;  and  its 
inmates  kept  up  a  constant  intercourse  with  the  great  men  of 
the  day  as  the}^  passed  through  it  on  their  way  to  and  from 
London  and  the  provinces.     Nowhere  else,   perhaps,   in  the 


1 9^  Latin  Chroniclers 

kingdom  could  a  historian  of  contemporary  events  pursue  his 
task  at  that  time  under  more  favourable  conditions.  More- 
over, in  no  other  abbey  does  the  writing  of  history  appear 
to  have  been  so  carefully  organised  as  at  St.  Albans.  Abbot 
Simon,  who  died  m  1 183,  established  in  the  monastery  a  regular 
office  of  historiographer.  The  first  occupant  of  this  office 
whose  complete  work  has  come  down  to  us  was  Roger  of  Wen- 
dover;  but  his  chronicle  is  based  upon  materials  of  which  an 
ample  wealth  already  existed  in  the  abbey.  The  actual 
nucleus  of  the  early  part  of  Roger's  Flowers  of  History  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  compilation  of  John  de  Cella,  who  was 
abbot  of  St.  Albans  from  ii95toi2i4.  John's  work  extended 
down  to  the  year  1 188,  and  was  revised  and  continued  by  Roger 
down  to  1235,  the  year  before  his  death.  Roger  claims  in 
his  preface  to  have  selected  "  from  the  books  of  catholic  writers 
worthy  of  credit,  just  as  flowers  of  various  colours  are  gathered 
from  various  fields."  Hence  he  called  his  work  Flores  His- 
toriariim — a  title  appropriated  in  the  fourteenth  century  to 
a  long  compilation  by  various  hands.  Begun  at  St.  Albans 
and  completed  at  Westminster,  it  was  based  upon  the  Chronicle 
of  Matthew  Paris  and  continued  to  the  year  1326.  The  work 
was  long  ascribed  to  one  Matthew  of  Westminster,  but  it  is 
now  known  that  no  actual  chronicler  of  that  name  ever  existed. 
Roger  of  Wendover's  work  is,  however,  now  valued  not  so 
much  for  what  he  culled  from  previous  writers  as  for  its  full 
and  lively  narrative  of  contemporary  events,  from  12 16  to 
1235.  Although  in  accuracy  and  range  and  in  sublety  and 
shrewdness  of  insight  he  falls  far  short  of  his  great  successor 
as  historiographer  of  St.  Albans,  Roger  largely  anticipates  him 
in  the  fearless  candour  of  his  personal  and  moral  judgments. 

Matthew  Paris  became  historiographer  of  St.  Albans  upon 
the  death  of  Roger  of  Wendover  in  1236,  and  proceeded  in  his 
famous  Chronica  Majora  to  revise  and  continue  the  work  of 
his  predecessor.  Matthew  Paris's  own  narrative  is  an  extraor- 
dinarily comprehensive  and  masterly  survey  of  both  English 
and  continental  history  during  almost  an  entire  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury. We  know  little  of  the  details  of  the  historian's  own 
life.  He  became  a  monk  of  St.  Albans  in  12 17,  and  tradition 
ascribes  to  him  not  only  a  high  repute  for  scholarship,  but  the 
possession  of  varied  gifts   as  an  artist.     The  most  notable 


Matthew  Paris  199 

incident  in  his  career  was  his  employment  by  the  pope,  in 
1248,  on  a  mission  of  reform  to  the  Benedictine  monks  of 
Holm,  in  Norway,  which  kept  him  away  from  England  for 
some  eighteen  months.  He  lived,  throughout,  in  close  inti- 
macy with  the  court,  and,  notwithstanding  his  plain-spokenness, 
enjoyed  a  share  of  royal  favour.  He  died  in  1259.  Courtier 
and  scholar,  monk  and  man  of  the  world,  Matthew  Paris  was, 
both  by  training  and  position,  exceptionally  well  qualified  to 
undertake  a  history  of  his  own  time.  Moreover,  he  had  the 
instinct,  the  temper  and  the  judgment  of  the  born  historian. 
He  took  immense  pains  in  the  collection  and  the  verification  of 
his  facts,  and  appears  to  have  been  in  constant  communication 
with  a  host  of  correspondents  both  at  home  and  abroad.  In- 
deed, his  work  reads  like  a  stately  journal  of  contemporary 
European  events,  where  everything  is  marshalled  in  due  order 
and  proportion  by  a  master  editorial  hand.  Great  events  and 
small  follow  each  other  in  quick,  though  orderly,  succession, 
just  as  in  some  modern  review  of  the  world's  work.  Simon 
de  Montfort's  preparations  for  his  crusade;  a  dispute  between 
the  scholars  and  citzens  of  Oxford ;  the  death  of  Llywelyn, 
prince  of  Wales;  the  pope's  dealings  with  foreign  clerks 
in  England ;  a  great  storm ;  the  decapitation  of  certain  robbers ; 
war  in  Flanders ;  the  burning  of  heretics  by  the  Milanese ;  the 
irruption  of  the  Tartars — such  is  a  brief  selection  of  topics 
culled  at  random  from  a  few  consecutive  pages  of  Matthew's 
Chronicle.  But  he  is  much  more  than  a  mere  recorder  of  events. 
He  is  a  fearless  critic  and  censor  of  public  men  and  their  doings. 
A  thoroughly  patriotic  Englishman,  he  is  severe  upon  all  mis- 
government,  openly  rebuking  the  king,  denouncing  the  greed 
and  rapacity  of  the  nobles,  protesting  indignantly  against  the 
extortionate  exactions  of  the  pope.  He  is  not,  indeed,  alto- 
gether free  from  the  professional  bias  of  his  class ;  and  in  nothing 
is  this  more  apparent  than  in  his  obviously  prejudiced  refer- 
ences to  the  mendicant  orders.  But  his  criticisms  as  a  whole 
are  animated  by  a  transparently  honest  fervour  of  moral  indig- 
nation and  by  a  patriotic  jealousy  for  the  honour  of  England. 
The  pope's  emissaries  are  "  harpies  and  bloodsuckers,  plunder- 
ers, who  do  not  merely  shear,  but  skin,  the  sheep."  For  his 
complacent  acquiescence  in  the  deeds  of  the  papal  legates  the 
king  is  denounced  as  having  become  to  the  clergy  "as  it  were 


200  Latin  Chroniclers 

the  stalk  of  a  reed — on  which  those  who  lean  in  confidence  are 
wounded  by  the  fragments."  The  king's  own  extortionate 
demands  for  money  from  the  clergy  are  no  less  boldly  con- 
demned, while  his  foolishness  and  extravagance  are  constantly 
censured.  These  outspoken  animadversions  did  not,  however, 
blind  Henry  to  Matthew's  skill  as  a  writer,  and  the  chroni- 
cler relates  how,  during  the  celebration  of  the  feast  of  Edward 
the  Confessor,  m  1247,  the  sovereign  himself  bade  him  take  a 
seat  near  the  throne  and  write  a  full  account  of  the  proceed- 
ings so  that  the  facts  might  stand  accurately  recorded  for  ever. 
Matthew  was,  indeed,  a  ready  and  a  picturesque  writer. 
Though  frequently  prolix  and  rhetorical,  he  is  never  tedious 
or  irrelevant.  His  narrative,  as  a  rule,  is  wonderfully  direct, 
clear  and  nervous,  while  his  instinct  for  order  and  literary 
effect  is  such  as  to  give  to  his  Chronicle,  as  a  whole,  a  unity  and 
a  sustained  interest  which  belong  to  the  work  of  no  other  Eng- 
lish medieval  historian. 

Matthew  Paris  quite  overshadows  every  other  chronicler 
V  of  the  time  of  Henry  HI.  But  much  of  the  history  of  Henry's 
reign  would  remain  obscure  were  Paris's  Chronicle  not  supple- 
mented by  the  monumental  work  of  Henry  of  Bracton,  or 
Bratton,  on  the  laws  of  England.  Bracton  scarcely  belongs 
to  the  chroniclers ;  but  his  writings  throw  sufficient  light  upon 
the  social  conditions  of  his  time  to  entitle  him  to  stand  side 
by  side  with  Matthew  Paris  as  a  contributor  to  the  English 
history  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Following  in  the  footsteps 
of  Ranulf  de  Glanville  (or  Hubert  Walter),  Henry  IPs  great 
justiciar,  Henry  of  Bracton  compiled,  some  time  between  1250 
and  1258,  an  elaborate  treatise  on  the  laws  and  customs  of 
England.  Bracton  was  one  of  the  many  ecclesiastics  who  held 
high  judicial  office  under  Henry  III.  He  was,  in  turn,  a  justice 
in  eyre,  a  judge  of  the  king's  court,  a  Devonshire  rector  and 
archdeacon  of  Barnstaple.  In  addition  to  his  legal  treatise  he 
left  behind  him  a  note-book,  containing  some  two  thousand 
cases  taken  from  the  plea  rolls  of  his  time,  with  comments 
which  "to  all  appearance  came  from  Bracton's  hand  or  from 
Bracton's  head."i  Indebted  though  he  was  for  the  form 
and  method  of  this  great  book  to  such  foreign  works  as  those 

'  Pollock  and  Maitland,  History  of  English  Law,  ed.  1898,  vol.  i,  p.  207. 


Minor  Chroniclers  201 

of  the  celebrated  Italian  lawyer  Azo  of  Bologna,  Bracton's 
work,  is,  m  substance,  thoroughly  English,  and  is  a  laborious 
exposition,  illustrated  by  some  hundreds  of  decisions,  of  the 
approved  practice  of  the  king's  court  in  England.  Bracton 
died  in  1268,  leaving  his  work  unfinished,  although  he  appears 
to  have  been  adding  to  and  annotating  it  to  the  very  last; 
but,  even  as  it  stands,  his  treatise  is  not  only  the  most  authori- 
tative English  law-book  of  his  time,  but,  in  design  and  matter, 
"the  crown  and  flower  of  English  medieval  jurisprudence."^ 
It  "both  marks  and  makes  a  critical  moment  in  the  history 
of  law,  and,  therefore,  in  the  essential  history  of  the  English 
people.  "2 

The  art  of  the  historian  proper,  however,  gradually  began  to 
decline  after  the  death  of  Matthew  Paris.  Among  the  chroni- 
clers who  take  us  down  to  the  fourteenth  century  there  are 
few  names  worthy  of  a  place  in  a  history  of  literature.  Prom- 
inent among  them  are  IMatthew's  own  followers  at  St.  Albans, 
William  Rishanger  and  John  of  Trokelo we ;  Nicholas  Trivet  or 
Trevet,  a  Dominican  friar,  whose  works  are  of  considerable  his- 
torical importance  for  the  reign  of  Edward  I  and  of  additional 
literary  interest  m  connection  with  Chaucer's  Man  of  Law's 
Tale;  Walter  of  Hemingburgh,  a  canon  of  the  Yorkshire  priory 
of  Guisburn,  who  not  unworthily  continues  the  work  of  the 
northern  school;  John  de  Tayster,  or  Taxster,  a  monk  of  St. 
Edmundsbury,  who  adds  to  a  compilation  from  previous 
chroniclers  what  seems  to  be  an  original  narrative  for  the 
years  1258-65;  and  Thomas  Wykes,  a  monk  of  Osney,  whose 
chronicle  extends  down  to  1289,  and  is  an  authority  of  the  first 
importance  "  for  the  whole  history  of  the  campaign  of  Lewes 
and  Evesham,  and  the  events  immediately  preceding  and 
following  them."^  But  these,  and  other  writers,  are  largely 
subdued  to  the  monastic  atmosphere  in  ^^■hich  they  work,  and 
possess  few  of  the  traits  of  character  and  style  which  interest 
us  in  the  personality  of  the  greater  chroniclers.  The  impulse 
of  the  revival  of  learning  had  been  spent,  and  neither  in  literary 
distinction  nor  in  accuracy  and  wealth  of  information  are  the 

1  Pollock  and  Maitland,  History  of  English  Law,  ed.  1898,  vol.  i,  p.  206. 

2  Bracton's  Note  Book,  ed.  Maitland,  vol.  i,  p.  i. 
'3  Luard,  Annates  Monastici,  iv  (Rolls  Series') . 


202  Latin  Chroniclers 

chroniclers  who  wrote  during  the  hundred  years  after 
Matthew  Paris's  death  worthy  of  comparison  with  their  prede- 
cessors of  the  twelfth  and  early  thirteenth  centuries.  The 
best  of  them  are  those  who  by  their  industry  at  least,  en- 
deavoured down  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  to  retain 
for  St.  Albans  as  a  historical  school  the  supreme  repute  which 
had  been  so  signally  established  by  Matthew  Paris. 


CHAPTER  X 

English  Scholars  of  Paris  and  Franciscans 

of  Oxford. 

Latin   Literature    of    England    from   John  of  Salisbury   to 
Richard  of  Bury 

THE  University  of  Paris  owed  its  origin  to  the  cathedral 
school  of  Notre-Dame.  It  was  not  until  the  time  of 
William  of  Champeaux  (d.  1121)  that  this  school  be- 
gan to  rival  the  scholastic  fame  of  Chartres.  Early  in  the  thir- 
teenth century  the  schools  of  Paris  were  connected  with  three 
important  churches.  On  the  He  de  la  Cite  there  was  the 
cathedral  of  Notre-Dame;  to  the  south  of  the  Seine,  on  rising 
ground  near  the  site  of  the  present  Pantheon,  was  the  collegiate 
church  of  Sainte-Genevieve ;  and,  to  the  east  of  the  walls  south 
of  the  river,  the  church  of  Canons  Regular  at  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Victor.  The  schools  of  Notre-Dame  and  of  Sainte-Genevieve 
were  successively  the  scenes  of  the  ever-memorable  lectures 
of  a  famous  pupil  of  William  of  Champeaux,  the  eloquent, 
brilliant,  vain,  impulsive  and  self-confident  disputant,  Abelard 
(d.  1 142).  The  fame  of  his  teaching  made  Paris  the  resort  of 
large  numbers  of  scholars,  whose  presence  led  to  its  becoming 
the  home  of  the  many  masters  by  whom  the  university  was 
ultimately  founded.  The  earliest  trace  of  this  university  has 
been  discovered  in  the  passage  where  Matthew  Paris  states 
that  his  own  preceptor,  an  abbot  of  St.  Albans,  had,  as  a  stu- 
dent in  Paris,  been  admitted  into  "the  fellowship  of  the  elect 
Masters"  (r.  iiyo).!  In  1136,  when  John  of  Sahsbury  went 
to  Paris,  the  university  was  not  yet  in  existence.  The  first 
recorded  "town  and  gown"  riot,  that  of  1200,  led  to  the  grant 
of  a  charter  to  the  resident  body  of  Masters ;  the  approximate 

■  Gesta  Abbainm,  i,  217,  ed.  1867. 


204  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

date  of  the  first  statutes,  ten  years  later,  marks  the  earliest 
recognition  of  the  university  as  a  legally  constituted  corpora- 
tion, a  veritable  universitas;  and,  about  ten  years  later  still, 
the  Masters  of  Arts  were  first  organised  into  four  nations, 
namely,  the  French,  the  Normans,  the  Picards  and  the  English, 
this  last  including  the  Germans  and  all  who  came  from  the 
north  and  the  east  of  Europe.  In  the  thirteenth  century  Paris 
was  still  the  centre  of  European  culture.  It  is  sufficient  to  cite 
as  proof  a  passage  from  the  English  encyclopaedist  Bartholo- 
mew, who  flourished  in  the  middle  of  that  century : 

Even  as  Athens  shone  of  old  as  the  mother  of  liberal  arts  and 
the  nurse  of  philosophers,  so,  in  our  day,  Paris  has  raised  the  stand- 
ard of  learning  and  civilisation,  not  only  in  France  but  all  the  rest 
of  Europe;  and,  as  the  mother  of  wisdom,  she  welcomes  guests 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  supplies  all  their  wants  and  submits 
them  all  to  her  pacific  rule.^ 

The  carnival  riot  of  1229  led  to  the  withdrawal  of  the  resi- 
dent Masters  and  Scholars  for  two  years ;  meanwhile,  many  of 
them  accepted  the  invitation  of  Henry  III,  and  thus  reinforced 
the  rising  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 

The  first  important  representative  of  England  in  the  schools 
of  Paris  was  John  of  Salisbury.  He  began  by  becoming  a 
pupil  of  Abelard,  who  had  returned  to  the  scene  of  his  early 
triumphs,  and  at  the  age  of  57,  was  now  lecturing  on  the 
hill  of  Sainte-Genevieve.  That  "illustrious  and  admirable 
teacher"  was  discoursing,  as  of  old,  on  logic;  and  "at  his  feet" 
John  of  Salisbury  "acquired  the  first  rudiments  of  dialectics, 
greedily  seizing  all  that  fell  from  his  lips."  But  his  brilliant 
instructor  was  once  more  opposed,  and  once  more  withdrew 
from  Paris;  and  the  pupil  passed  into  the  school  of  Master 
Alberic  and  Robert  of  Melun.  The  first  was,  "in  questions, 
acute  and  expansive";  the  second,  "in  responses,  brief  and 
lucid";  and,  if  "anyone  could  have  combined  the  merits  of 
both,  he  would  have  been  unrivalled  in  debate."  2  Having 
thus  studied  logic  for  two  years  (i  136-8)  in  Paris,  John  of  Salis- 
bury spent  three  years  (probably  the  latter  part  of  1138,  and 
a  large  part  of  1139  and  1140)  working  at  "  grammar,"  or  the 
scholarly  study  of  Latin  literature.     The  place  is  not  named, 

>  XV,  c.  57,  p.  653,  ed.  1609.  2  Metalogicus,  11,  10. 


John  of  Salisbury  205 

but  it  has,  rightly,  been  identified  as  the  school  of  Chartres.i 
In  that  school  the  sound  and  healthy  tradition  of  Bernard  of 
Chartres  was  still  maintained  by  his  pupils.  By  John  of  Sahs- 
bury's  time,  Bernard  had  been  succeeded  as  chancellor  of  the 
cathedral  school  by  Gilbert  de  la  Porree.  John  of  Salisbury 
learnt  rhetoric  from  Richard  L'Eveque,  who  was  "  familiar 
with  almost  every  branch  of  learning,  w^hose  knowledge  was 
even  greater  than  his  eloquence,  who  had  more  truth  than 
vanity,  more  virtue  than  show. "2  He  had  already  attended, 
with  less  profit,  the  somewhat  meagre  lectures-  of  Bernard's 
younger  brother,  Theodoric,  who  is  nevertheless  described  as 
"  a  most  studious  investigator  of  the  Arts.''^  This  description 
was  confirmed  in  1888,  when  he  was  identified  as  the  author 
of  two  large  volumes  containing  a  comprehensive  Survey  of 
the  Liberal  Arts,  written  in  a  bold  and  clear  hand,  which  may 
now  be  seen  in  the  public  library  of  the  cathedral  town.  It 
may  be  added  that  it  was  between  11 34  and  11 50,  during  the 
time  when  Theodoric  was  successively  "master  of  the  school  " 
and  chancellor,  that  the  south  doorway  of  the  west  front  of  the 
cathedral  was  adorned  with  figures  of  the  seven  arts,  each  of 
them  associated  with  the  ancient  representative  of  that  art,  for 
example,  grammar  with  Priscian,  dialectic  with  Aristotle 
and  rhetoric  with  Cicero. 

It  was  probably  early  in  1141  that  John  returned  to  Paris. 
For  a  short  time  he  attended  not  only  the  lectures  of  Gilbert, 
who  had  lately  ceased  to  be  chancellor  of  Chartres,  but  also 
those  of  Robert  Pullen,  the  future  cardinal,  who  had  taught  at 
Oxford  in  1 133.  Socially,  he  saw  much  of  Adam  du  Petit  Pont, 
who  owed  his  surname  to  the  school  that  he  had  set  up  on  the 
little  bridge  between  the  He  de  la  Cite  and  the  Quartier  Latin. 

John  of  Salisbury's  student  life  in  Paris,  and  Chartres,  and 
again  in  Pans,  probably  extended  from  early  in  1136  to  late 
in  1 145.  In  the  spring  of  1 148  he  was  present  at  the  council  of 
Rheims.  It  was  there  that  he  was  introduced  by  Bernard  of 
Clair\"aux  to  Theobald,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  an  introduc- 
tion that  had  an  important  effect  on  his  literary  and  ecclesias- 
tical career. 

About  1 1 50  he  returned  to  England,  and  resided  mainly  at 

•  Schaarschmidt,  Joh.  Saresberiensis,  p_.  22. 

2  Aletalogicus,  loc.  cit.  ^  Metalogicus,  i,  5. 


2o6  English  Scholars  of  Pans 

the  court  of  Canterbur}^,  engaged  on  secretarial  and  diplomatic 
work,  which  frequently  took  him  to  the  court  of  Rome.  On 
the  most  celebrated  of  these  visits,  during  the  winter  of  1 155-6, 
his  friend  the  English  pope,  Hadrian  IV,  sent  Henry  II  his 
written  authority  to  extend  his  rule  over  Ireland,  together 
with  an  emerald  ring  in  token  of  his  right. ^  It  was  probably 
John  of  Salisbury's  eager  interest  in  the  privileges  of  the  church 
while  he  was  still  in  the  service  of  Theobald  that  led  to  his  soon 
falling  into  disfavour  with  the  king.  During  the  enforced 
leisure  of  11 59  he  revised  and  completed  two  of  his  most  exten- 
sive works,  finishing  the  Policraticus  shortly  before,  and  the 
Metalogicus  immediately  after,  the  death  of  Hadrian  IV  (31 
August,  1 1 59).  Both  of  these  were  dedicated  to  Becket,  the 
warlike  chancellor,  with  whose  aid  Henry  II  was  then  "  ful- 
minating "  at  the  siege  of  Toulouse. 2  When  Becket  became 
archbishop  in  11 62,  John  of  Salisbury  entered  his  service,  and, 
soon  afterwards,  composed  a  Life  of  archbishop  Anselm  with  a 
view  to  the  canonisation  which  was  not  conceded  until  three 
centuries  later.  On  the  king's  return,  early  in  11 63,  John  of 
Salisbury  found  it  safest  to  leave  the  country,  staying  for  six 
or  seven  years  with  Peter  de  la  Celle,  then  abbot  of  Rheims, 
under  whose  roof  he  wrote  the  Historia  PontificaUs.  His  exile, 
like  that  of  Becket,  lasted  till  late  in  11 70.  On  the  fatal  29th 
of  December  he  was  at  Canterbury  with  the  archbishop,  who 
unhappily  disregarded  the  counsels  of  moderation  suggested 
by  his  devoted  friend.  They  entered  the  cathedral  together. 
In  the  face  of  the  murderous  attack  on  the  archbishop's  per- 
son, John  of  Salisbury  seems  to  have  fled  at  first,  but  to  have 
soon  returned  to  the  post  of  peril.  He  was  probably  present 
at  the  end.  He  was  certainly  believed  by  his  friend  Peter  to 
have  been  "  sprinkled  with  the  precious  blood  of  the  blessed 
martyr."  ^ 

He  immediately  urged  the  inclusion  of  his  master's  name 
in  the  calendar  of  martyrs,  wrote  his  Life,  and  loyally  served 
his  successor.  In  11 76  his  devotion  to  the  memory  of  St. 
Thomas  and  his  friendship  with  the  archbishop  of  Sens  led  to 
John  of  Salisbury  being  made  bishop  of  Chartres.  For  the 
last  four  years  of  his  life  he  was  the  most  prominent  personage 

»  Meialogictis,  iv,  42.  2  Policraticus,  viii,  25. 

3  Petrus  Cellensis,  Ep.  117. 


John  of  Salisbury  207 

in  the  place  where  he  had  spent  three  of  the  most  successful 
years  of  his  youth.  In  the  necrology  of  his  cathedral  church 
he  is  described  as  vir  magnae  religionis,  totiusque  scientiae 
radiis  illustratus. 

His  Letters  give  abundant  proof  of  his  wide  influence  as  a 
sagacious  counsellor,  an  able  politician  and  a  zealous  ecclesi- 
astic. They  were  collected  and  edited  by  himself  soon  after 
1 1 70.  Of  the  326  comprised  in  the  modern  editions,  some 
were  written  after  the  above  date,  and  some  by  other  writers. 
His  Entheticus,  an  elegiac  poem  of  no  less  than  1852  lines,  was, 
apparently,  intended  as  an  introduction  to  PoUcraticus,  which 
is  now  preceded  by  a  short  set  of  verses  bearing  the  same  title 
as  the  above  poem.  In  both  of  these  poems,  which  are  written 
in  a  strong  and  solid  but  not  particularly  elegant  style,  Becket 
is  warmly  eulogised.  He  is  the  king's  right  hand,  the  embodi- 
ment of  all  excellence,  the  refuge  of  the  oppressed,  the  light  of 
the  church,  the  glory  of  the  nation. ^ 

The  PoUcraticus  is  a  work  in  eight  books.  The  primary 
title  has  led  to  its  being  regarded  as  a  "  statesman's  handbook." 
The  alternative  title,  De  Nugis  Curialium,  et  Vestigiis  Philoso- 
phorum,  is  suggestive  of  a  satire  on  the  vanities  of  courtiers, 
followed  by  a  set  treatise  on  morals;  but  the  latter  half  deals 
with  the  principles  of  government,  and  with  matters  of  philoso- 
ply  and  learning,  interspersed  with  many  digressions.  It  is,  in 
fact  an  "  encyclopaedia  of  miscellanies,"  reflecting  the  culti- 
vated thought  of  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century.  It  in- 
cludes an  interesting  chapter  on  Aristotle,  2  and  a  satirical 
account  of  the  scholastic  controversies  of  the  age. 

The  Metalogicus,  in  four  books,  contains  a  defence  of  the 
method  and  use  of  logic,  vindicating  the  claims  of  "  grammar," 
and  pleading  for  an  intelligent  study  of  logic.  It  includes 
an  analysis  of  the  whole  series  of  Aristotle's  treatises  on  that 
subject,  being,  in  fact,  the  earliest  work  in  the  Middle  Ages  in 
which  every  part  of  the  Organon  is  turned  to  account. 

The  Historia  Pontificalis  is  only  preser\'ed  in  an  incomplete 
form  in  a  single  manuscript  at  Bern;  it  was  not  printed  until 
1886,  and  was  not  identified  as  the  work  of  John  of  Salisbury 
until  1873.  It  gives  an  account  of  the  ecclesiastical  history 
of  the  years  1 148  to  1 1 5  2 . 

»  Migne,  P.  L.  cxcix,  379,  993.  ^  vii,  6. 


2o8  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

In  his  attitude  towards  the  ancient  classics,  John  of  Sahs- 
bury  is  far  from  regarding  Aristotle  as  infallible ;  he  is  opposed 
to  Plato,  though  he  is  fully  conscious  of  Plato's  greatness. 
His  favourite  author  is  Cicero,  and  the  purity  of  his  own  Latin 
prose  has  been  justly  praised.  Caesar  and  Tacitus  he  knows 
solely  by  name ;  but  in  all  the  literature  accessible  to  him  he  is 
obviously  the  best  read  scholar  of  his  time.  A  hum?.nist  two 
centuries  in  advance  of  his  age,  he  is  eager  to  give  the  widest 
possible  interpretation  to  "whatsoever  things  w^ere  written 
aforetime  for  our  learning.  "^ 

I  Jin  his  day  the  first  period  in  the  medieval  study  of  logic 
was  drawing  towards  its  close,  and  with  the  degenerate  type 
of  the  professional  dialectician  he  has  no  sympathy.  The  ear- 
liest of  all  the  medieval  theories  on  the  nature  and  the  func- 
tions of  the  state  is  due  to  John  of  Salisbury.  He  is  the  first 
of  modem  writers  on  the  philosophy  of  politics,  and  he  founds 
his  own  theory  on  the  records  of  the  Old  Testament  and  on  the 
annals  of  the  ancient  Roman  empire. 

As  a  representative  of  literature  and  learning,  Peter  of  Blois 
is  only  a  pale  reflection  of  John  of  Salisbury.  Born  a.t  Blois, 
he  was  probably  educated  at  Tours;  he  learnt  and  taught  at  Bo- 
logna and  Paris,  settled  in  England  about  1175  as  secretary 
to  Richard  of  Dover,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  was  suc- 
cessively archdeacon  of  Bath  {c.  11 77)  and  of  London  {c.  1204). 
He  was  repeatedly  entrusted  with  diplomatic  duties  by  Henry 
II,  and  the  Letters  ascribed  to  him  purport  to  have  been  origin- 
ally collected  at  the  request  of  the  king.  But  some  of  them 
— for  example,  those  on  the  capture  of  Damietta  in  12 19 — 
could  not  possibly  have  been  written  during  the  life  of  the  king, 
who  died  in  1189,  or  during  that  of  Peter  of  Blois,  who  died 
in  or  before  1212.  Peter  of  Blois,  on  his  appointment  as  sec- 
retary to  the  archbishop  m  11 75,  obviously  made  a  diligent 
study  of  the  Letters  of  John  of  SaUsbury,  who  had  edited  his 
Letters  soon  after  11 70,  while  Peter  did  not  begin  to  edit  his 
own  until  1181,  the  year  after  John  of  SaHsbury's  death. 
Many  of  Peter's  Letters  are  enriched  with  quotations  from  the 
classics,  but  most  of  those  quotations  are  borrowed  from  John 
of  Salisbury.  Thus,  in  a  letter  to  the  archdeacon  of  Nantes, 
we  have  a  list  of  ancient  grammarians,  and  a  second  Hst  of 

>  Cf.  Prologue  to  Policraiicus,  vii. 


Walter  Map  209 

ancient  historians.^  Both  of  these  are  borrowed  from  John  of 
SaHsbury;2  but,  while  John  of  SaHsbury  modestly  refers  his 
readers  to  Tacitus,  without  professing  to  have  read  that  au- 
thor, Peter  of  Blois  pretends  to  have  "frequently  looked  into" 
Tacitus, — an  author  never  mentioned  by  such  well-informed 
contemporaries  as  Giraldus  Cambrensis  and  Ralph  of  Diceto. 
Criticised  for  his  constant  quotations,  he  defends  a  manner  of 
composition  which  places  him  "  like  a  dwarf  on  the  shoulders 
of  giants"^;  but  this  very  comparison  is  tacitly  taken  from 
John  of  Salisbury,  who  honestly  quotes  it  from  Bernard 
of  Chartres.*  It  is  improbable  that  Peter  was  ever  an  act- 
ual pupil  of  the  scholar  to  whom  he  owed  so  much  of  his  bor- 
rowed erudition;  but,  curiously  enough,  he  held  preferment 
at  Chartres,  and  also  at  Salisbury.  His  brief  Sermons  call  for 
no  comment.  Of  his  few  poems  the  longest  deals  with  the 
sacraments  in  twenty-six  chapters  of  riming  hexameteis; 
while  two  others,  written  in  a  different  metre,  have  for  their 
themes  the  life  of  the  clergy,  and  the  conflict  between  the  flesh 
and  the  spirit. 

Walter  Map,  who  was  born  about  1137  on  the  marches 
of  Wales,  and  accordingly  called  England  his  mother,  and  the 
Welsh  his  fellow-countrymen,  studied  in  Paris  from  about 
1 1 54  to  1 160.  He  returned  to  England  before  1162,  was  fre- 
quently one  of  the  king's  itinerant  judges,  and,  after  holding, 
other  preferment,  was  appointed  archdeacon  of  Oxford  in 
1 197.  About  1209,  when  Giraldus  published  the  second 
edition  of  his  Conquest  of  Ireland,^  Walter  Map  was  no  longer 
living. 

Map  was  the  author  of  an  entertaining  miscellany  in  Latin 
prose,  De  Nugis  Curialium,  a  work  in  a  far  lighter  vein  than  that 
of  John  of  Salisbury,  who  had  adopted  this  as  an  alternative 
title  of  his  PoUcraticus.  But,  even  in  this  lighter  vein.  Map 
has  often  a  grave  moral  purpose.  Stories  of  the  follies  and 
crimes  of  courts,  and  a  lament  over  the  fall  of  Jerusalem 
are  here  followed  by  an  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Carthu- 
sians, the  Templars  and  the  Hospitallers,  with  reflections  on 
their  growing  corruption,  and  a  violent  attack  on  the  Cister- 

'  Ep.  loi.  '  Policraticus,  viii,  i8. 

3  Ep.  92.  *  Metalogicus,  iii,  4.. 

5  V,  410. 


2IO  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

cians,  together  with  notices  of  heretics  and  of  hermits.  In  the 
second  book  we  have  anecdotes  of  the  Welsh,  with  a  collection 
of  fairy-tales ;  in  the  third,  a  series  of  highly  romantic  stories ; 
in  the  fourth,  the  "Epistle  of  Valerius  dissuading  from  mar- 
riage the  philosopher  Rufinus  "  (sometimes  erroneously  ascribed 
to  St.  Jerome) ;  and,  in  the  fifth,  an  invaluable  sketch  of  the 
history  of  the  English  court  from  William  Rufus  to  Henry  11. 
Walter  Map's  "courtly  jests"  are  mentioned  by  Giraldus 
Cambrensis,  who,  in  his  latest  work,  describes  Map  as  a  person 
of  distinction,  endued  with  literary  skill  and  with  the  wit  of  a 
courtier,  and  as  having  spent  his  youth  (and  more  than  his 
youth)  in  reading  and  writing  poetry.  ^  Giraldus  sends  his  friend 
a  set  of  Latin  elegiacs,  with  a  present  of  a  walking-stick,  and 
he  has  fortunately  preserved  the  twelve  lines  of  his  friend's 
reply  in  the  same  metre. 2  This  reply  is  almost  the  only  cer- 
tainly genuine  product  of  Map's  muse  that  has  survived.  Of 
his  poems  against  the  Cistercian  monks,  only  a  single  line  is 
left :  Lancea  Longini,  grex  albus,  ordo  nefandus.^  His  notorious 
antipathy  to  the  Cistercian  order  has  led  to  his  being  regarded 
as  the  author  of  another  poem  entitled  Discipulus  Goliae  epis- 
copi  de  grists  monachis^  The  worldly,  and  worse  than  worldly 
bishop  Golias  is  the  theme  of  other  poems,  in  accentual  riming 
metres,  ascribed  to  Map,  notably  the  Apocalypse,  the  Confession 
and  the  Metamorphosis  of  Golias.  The  Apocalypse  is  first 
assigned  to  him  in  a  Bodleian  manuscript  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  Here  there  is  no  attempt  to  dramatise  the  character 
of  Golias ;  we  have  simply  an  apocalyptic  vision  of  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  church  set  forth  in  no  riming  quatrains  of 
accentual  dactyls  m  lines  of  the  type:  Omnis  a  clericis  fiuit 
enormitas.  In  the  accentual  trochaics  of  the  Confession, 
the  bishop  is  dramatically  represented  as  remembering  "the 
tavern  that  he  has  never  scorned,  nor  ever  will  scorn  until 
the  angels  sing  his  requiem."  Then  follow  the  four  lines, 
which  are  better  known  and  more  misunderstood  than  any  in 
the  poem : 

Memn  est  propositum  in  taherna  mori: 

Vinuin  sit  appositurn  morientis  ori, 

Ut  dicant  cum  venerint  angelorum  chori, 

"Deus  sit  propitius  huic  potatori!" 

'  IV,  140.  2  I,  363. 

3  Latin  Poems,  p.  xxxv.  *  lb.,  p.  54. 


Walter  Map 


211 


These  lines,  with  part  of  the  subsequent  context,  were  at  an 
early  date  extracted  from  their  setting  and  made  into  a  drink- 
ing-song; but  it  cannot  be  too  clearly  stated  that  they  were 
originally  meant  for  a  dramatic  representation  of  the  character 
of  the  degenerate  "bishop."  It  is  a  mistake  to  regard  them 
as  reflecting  in  any  way  on  the  habits  of  the  reputed  author, 
who  has  been  erroneously  described  as  the  "jovial  archdeacon" 
and  the  "Anacreon  of  his  age."  Giraldus,  in  the  very  same 
work  in  which  he  lauds  the  literary  skill  and  the  wit  of  his 
friend,  quotes  for  reprobation,  and  not  for  imitation,  a  series 
of  calumnious  passages,  including  the  above  Hnes  with  their 
immediately  previous  context.^  He  is  clearly  quite  innocent 
of  ascribing  these  lines  to  his  friend.  The  whole  of  the  Con- 
fession is  also  preserved  in  the  celebrated  thirteenth  century 
Munich  MS.  of  the  Carmina  Burana,  formerly  belonging  to  the 
Benedictine  monastery  of  Benedictbeuern  in  the  Bavarian 
highlands.  It  forms  part  of  the  vast  number  of  anonymous 
Latin  rimes  known  from  1227  onwards  by  the  name  of  Goli- 
ardi.  The  character  of  Bishop  Golias  may  possibly  have  as- 
sumed dramatic  form  in  the  age  of  Walter  Map,  but  the  name 
was  certainly  three  centuries  older.  As  early  as  the  time  of 
Gautier,  archbishop  of  Sens  (d.  923),  a  sentence  of  condem- 
nation is  passed  on  the  clerici  rihaldi,  maxime  qui  vulgo  dicun- 
tur  de  familia  Goliae.^ 

Map  is  credited  in  certain  MSS.  with  the  authorship  of  the 
"  original"  Latin  of  the  great  prose  romance  of  Lancelot  du  Lac, 
including  the  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail  and  the  Death  of  Arthur; 
but  no  such  "Latin  original"  has  yet  been  found.  A  version 
of  the  Quest  in  French  prose  is  assigned  to  "  I\Iaistres  Gualters 
Map,"  and  is  described  as  "written  by  him  for  the  love  of  his 
lord,  King  Henry,  who  caused  it  to  be  translated  from  Latin 
into  French."  In  certain  manuscripts,  all  the  four  parts  of  the 
romance  of  Lancelot  are  ascribed  to  Map;  and  Hue  de  Rote- 
lande  (c.  1185),  a  near  neighbour  and  a  contemporary  of  Map, 
after  describing  in  his  Ipomedon  a  tournament,  which  is  also  an 
incident  in  Lancelot,  excuses  his  romance- writing  in  the  words : 
"  I  am  not  the  only  man  who  knows  the  art  of  lying;  Walter 
Map  knows  w^ell  his  part  of  it."'^     Such  is  the  evidence,  sHght  as 

>  IV,  293.  ^  Labbd's  Concilia,  1671,  ix,  578. 

i  H.  L.  D.  Ward's  Catalogue  of  Romances,  i,  734-41. 


212  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

it  is,  for  ascribing  to  Map  any  share  in  the  great  cycle  of  ro- 
mance sun'eyed  in  other  chapters.  ^  We  have  already  seen  that 
there  is  very  little  reason  for  accepting  him  as  the  author 
of  any  part  of  the  large  body  of  accentual  Latin  poetry  which 
passes  under  his  name.  The  only  thirteen  lines  of  Latin  verse 
which  are  certainly  genuine  products  of  his  pen  are  written 
in  hexameters  and  pentameters  of  the  strictly  classical  type. 

A  century  before  the  time  of  Map,  Godfrey,  a  native  of 
Cambrai,  and  prior  of  St.  Swithin's,  Winchester  (d.  1107), 
had  written  Latin  epigrams  after  the  manner  of  Martial.  He 
is,  in  fact,  repeatedly  quoted  as  "Marcial"  by  Gower.  The 
238  ordinary  epigrams  of  his  first  book  are  followed  by  nineteen 
others,  which  have  a  historic  interest,  in  so  far  as  they  refer 
to  royal  or  ecclesiastical  persons  of  the  day.  The  Anglo- 
Norman  poet  Reginald,  a  monk  of  St.  Augustine's,  Canterbury 
(/?.  1 1 12),  wrote  a  lengthy  poem  in  leonine  hexameters  on  the 
life  of  the  Syrian  hermit  St.  Malchus.  In  the  next  half  century, 
Lawrence,  the  Benedictine  monk  who  became  prior  and  bishop 
of  Durham  (d.  1154),  composed  a  popular  summary  of  Scrip- 
ture history  in  nine  books  of  elegiac  verse.  Henry  of  Hunt- 
tingdon  (d.  1155)  has  preserved  in  the  eleventh  book  of  his 
Historia  Anglorum,  the  Latin  epigrams  and  other  minor  poems 
that  he  had  learnt  to  compose  as  a  pupil  of  the  monks  of 
Ramsey.  A  little  later,  Hilarius,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been 
an  Englishman,  and  was  a  pupil  of  Abelard  about  11 25,  wrote 
in  France  three  Latin  plays  on  sacred  themes,  the  earliest  of 
their  kind.  The  Raising  of  Lazarus  and  the  Image  of  St. 
Nicholas  are  partly  written  in  French;  the  Story  of  Daniel 
in  Latin  only.  He  is  also  the  author  of  twelve  interesting  sets 
of  riming  lyrics,  in  Latin,  interspersed  with  a  few  lines  of  French, 
the  most  graceful  poem  in  the  series  being  addressed  to  an 
English  maiden  bearing  the  name  of  Rose.  About  the  same 
time  the  Cistercian  monk  Henry  of  Saltrey  (ft.  11 50),  wTote 
a  Latin  prose  version  of  the  legend  of  the  Purgatory  of  St. 
Patrick.  A  life  of  Becket,  now  only  known  through  the  Ice- 
landic Thomas  Saga,  was  written  by  Robert  of  Cricklade, 
chancellor  of  Oxford  (1159)  and  prior  of  St  Frideswide's, 
who  dedicated  to  Henry  II  his  nine  books  of  F lores  from  the 
Natural  History  of  the  elder  Pliny. 

>  See  especially  posi.  Chapter  xii. 


I 


Nigel  Wireker  213 

One  of  Map's  younger  contemporaries,  Gervase,  the  author 
the  Otia  Impcrialia,  a  native  of  Tilbury  on  the  coast  of  Essex, 
was  brought  up  in  Rome;  he  lectured  on  law  at  Bologna,  and 
probably  died  in  England.  The  above  work  was  written  about 
121 1  to  amuse  the  leisure  hours  of  the  German  emperor. 
Otto  IV.  It  is  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  legendary  tales  and 
superstitions.  The  theme  of  the  first  three  books  and  many 
of  the  quotations  are  borrowed,  without  acknowledgment, 
from  the  Historia  Scholastica  of  that  omnivorous  compiler 
Petrus  Comestor.  The  third  book  tells  us  of  werewolves 
and  lamias  and  barnacle-geese  and  other  marvels,  and  also  of 
the  enchantments  ascribed  to  Vergil  at  Naples. 

Another  of  Map's  contemporaries,  Nigel  Wireker,  precentor 
of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury  (d.  1200),  was  the  witty  author 
of  the  Speculum  Stultorum,  a  long  elegiac  poem  on  the  adven- 
tures of  the  donkey  "  Burnellus,"  or  "  Brunellus,"  a  diminutive 
of  "Brown"  (just  as  "donkey"  is  a  diminutive  of  "dun"). 
The  name  is  borrowed  from  the  scholastic  logic  of  the  day, 
in  which  it  represents  any  particular  horse  or  ass,  as  opposed 
to  the  abstract  idea  of  either  of  those  animals.^ 

The  author  himself  explains  that  the  ass  of  his  satire  is  a 
monk  who,  discontented  with  his  condition,  wants  to  get  rid  of 
his  old  stump  of  a  tail,  and  obtain  a  new  and  longer  appendage 
by  becoming  a  prior  or  an  abbot.  Brunellus,  then,  finding 
his  tail  too  short,  consults  Galen  on  his  malady,  and  is,  ulti- 
mately, sent  off  to  Salerno  with  a  satirical  prescription,  which 
he  is  to  bring  back  in  glass  bottles,  typical  of  the  vanity  and 
frailty  of  all  human  things.  On  his  way  there  and  back  he  is 
attacked  by  merchants  and  monks  and  mastiffs,  and  is  thus 
robbed  of  all  his  scanty  goods,  and  half  of  his  diminutive  tail. 
Ashamed  to  return  home,  and  having  an  immense  capacity  for 
patient  labour,  he  resolves  on  becoming  a  member  of  the 
English  "nation"  in  the  university  of  Paris.  Then  follows  a 
satire  on  the  idleness  and  extravagance  of  some  of  the  English 
students  at  that  seat  of  learning.  After  spending  seven  years 
in  studying  the  liberal  arts  and  thus  "completing"  his  edu- 
cation, he  finds  on  leaving  Paris  that  he  has  even  forgotten  the 
name  of  the  place.  However,  he  succeeds  in  recalling  one  syl- 
lable, but  that  is  enough,  for  he  has  learnt  in  his  time  that 

•  Immanuel  Weber,  De  Nigello  Wirekero,  Leipzig  Dissertation,  1679. 


214  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

"  the  part  may  stand  for  the  whole."  Passing  from  the  Hberal 
arts  to  theology,  the  hero  of  the  story  tries  all  the  monastic 
orders  in  their  turn,  and  ends  in  resolving  to  found  an  order  of 
his  own.  Meeting  Galen  once  more,  he  begins  discussing  the 
state  of  the  church  and  the  general  condition  of  society,  and 
urges  Galen  to  join  his  new  order,  when,  suddenly,  his  old 
master,  Bernard,  appears  on  the  scene,  and  compels  him  to 
return  to  his  first  allegiance  as  an  ordinary  monk.  Chaucer, 
in  The  Nonne  Preestes  Tale,  recalls  one  of  the  stories  he  had 
"  rad  in  daun  Burnel  the  Asse."^ 

The  Architrenius  or  "Arch-Mourner"  of  the  Norman  satir- 
ist Jean  de  Hauteville  {fl.  1184),  who  was  born  near  Rouen 
and  passed  part  of  his  life  in  England,  has  only  a  slight  con- 
nection with  our  present  subject.  The  pilgrim  of  that  satire 
pays  a  visit  to  Paris,  and  describes  the  hardships  of  the  students 
and  the  fruitlessness  of  their  studies;  he  afterwards  arrives 
at  the  hill  of  Presumption,  which  is  the  haunt  of  all  manner 
of  monks  and  ecclesiastics,  as  well  as  the  great  scholastic 
doctors  and  professors.  The  seven  liberal  arts  are  elaborately 
described  in  the  Anti-Claudianus  of  the  Universal  Doctor, 
Alain  de  Lille  (1114-1203).  This  fine  poem,  and  the  mingled 
prose  and  verse  of  the  De  Planctu  Naturae,  were  familiar  to 
Chaucer.  Alain  probably  passed  some  time  in  England 
with  the  Cistercians  at  Waverley  in  Surrey  (1128),  and  he  is  the 
reputed  author  of  a  commentary  on  the  prophecies  of  Merlin. 

Alain's  contemporary  Geoffrey  de  Vinsauf  {ft.  1200),  who 
was  educated  at  St.  Frideswide's,  Oxford,  and  travelled  in 
France  and  Italy,  dedicated  to  Innocent  III  his  Poetria  Nova, 
an  Art  of  Poetry  founded  partly  on  Horace,  and  recommending 
the  ancient  metres  in  preference  to  the  modern  rimes,  with 
examples  of  the  various  kinds  of  composition.  In  the  same 
period  Alexander  Neckam,  of  St.  Albans,  distinguished  him- 
self in  Paris  in  1180,  and,  late  in  hfe,  became  abbot  of  Ciren- 
cester. He  is  the  author  of  an  amusing  treatise  De  Naturis 
Rerum,  with  many  anecdotes  of  animals,  and  with  an  attack 
on  the  method  of  teaching  logic  in  the  university  of  Paris. 
In  his  lengthy  elegiac  poem  De  Laudibus  Divinae  Sapientiae 
he  traverses  much  of  the  same  ground.  He  further  describes 
the  chief  seats  of  learning  in  his  day,  summing  up  m  a  single 

'  Canterbury  Tales,  15318. 


I 


Giraldus  Cambrensis  215 

couplet  the  four  faculties  in  the  university  of  Paris,  the  para- 
disus  delictarum: 

Hie  florent  artes;  coelestis  pagina  regnat; 
Slant  leges;  lucet  jus;  medicina  viget.  ^ 

Joannes  de  Garlandia,  who  studied  at  Oxford  and  Paris 
(1204),  was  an  EngHshman  by  birth,  but  regarded  France 
as  the  land  of  his  adoption.  His  two  principal  poems,  De 
Mysteriis  and  De  Triumphis  Ecclesiae,  are  earlier  than  1252. 
His  Ars  Rhythmica  quotes  whole  poems  as  examples  of  the 
rules  of  rhythm.  His  prose  works  include  three  Vocabularies, 
one  of  which,  with  its  interlinear  French  glosses  and  its  refer- 
ence to  the  tricks  played  by  Parisian  glovers  on  inexperi- 
enced students,  was  clearly  written  for  use  in  the  university 
of  Paris. 

Later  in  the  same  century,  a  chaplain  of  Eleanor  of  Pro- 
vence, queen  of  Henry  HI,  named  John  Hoveden  (d.  1275), 
wrote  a  number  of  poems  in  riming  quatrains.  The  longest  of 
these  consists  of  nearly  4000  lines  of  meditation  on  the  life  of 
Christ.  This  was  translated  into  French.  His  most  popular 
poem,  that  beginning  with  the  line  Philomela,  praevia  temporis 
amoeni,  was  translated  into  German  and  Spanish  and,  about 
1460,  into  English. 

Latin  verse  was  one  of  the  early  amusements  of  the  keen 
and  active  Noman-Welshman  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  who  was 
born  at  the  castle  of  Manorbier,  which  he  dutifully  describes 
as  "the  sweetest  spot  in  Wales. "2  The  grandson,  on  his 
mother's  side,  of  Nest,  "the  Helen  of  Wales,"  he  celebrated 
the  exploits  of  her  heroic  descendants,  the  Geraldines,  in  one 
of  his  earliest  works,  the  Conquest  of  Ireland.  He  had  himself 
inherited  some  of  Nest's  beauty;  he  tglls  us  that,  in  his  youth- 
ful days,  an  abbot  of  the  Cistercian  order  once  said  of  him  in 
the  presence  of  Baldwin,  then  bishop  of  Worcester,  "  Is  it 
possible  that  Youth,  which  is  so  fair,  can  ever  die?"^  He 
received  his  early  education  from  two  of  the  chaplains  of  his 
uncle,  the  bishop  of  St.  David's.  After  continuing  his  studies 
at  St.  Peter's  abbey,  Gloucester,  he  paid  three  visits  to  Paris, 
spending  three  periods  of  several  years  in  its  schools,  and  giving 

'  P.  453  ed.  Wright,  in  Rolls  Scries,  1863. 

2  VI,  93.  3  IV,  104. 


2i6  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

special  attention  to  rhetoric.  We  have  his  own  authority  for 
the  fact  that,  when  his  lecturers  desired  to  point  out  a  model 
scholar,  they  mentioned  Gerald  the  Welshman.  ^ 

As  archdeacon  of  Brecon  (i  175-1203)  he  was  an  ardent 
reformer  of  ecclesiastical  abuses  in  his  native  land,  and  his 
great  disappointment  in  life  was  that  he  never  became  (like  his 
uncle)  bishop  of  St.  David's.  On  the  first  of  several  occasions 
when  he  was  thus  disappomted,  he  returned  to  Paris,  and  there 
studied  for  three  years,  besides  lecturing  with  great  success 
on  canon  law  (1177-80).  Visits  to  Ireland  followed  in  11 83 
and  1 185,  when  he  was  in  attendance  on  prmce  John.  After 
the  prince's  return  Gerald  stayed  till  Easter,  11 86,  collecting 
materials  for  his  two  works  on  Ireland.  The  Topography 
was  completed  in  1188,  In  the  following  year  he  resolved 
on  reciting  it  publicly  at  Oxford,  "where  the  most  learned  and 
famous  of  the  English  clergy  w^ere  then  to  be  found."  He 
read  one  of  the  three  divisions  of  the  work  on  each  of  three 
successive  days.  "  On  the  first  [he  informs  us]  he  received  and 
entertained  at  his  lodgings  all  the  poor  of  the  tow^n;  on  the 
next,  all  the  doctors  of  the  different  faculties,  and  such  of 
their  pupils  as  were  of  fame  and  note;  and,  on  the  third,  the 
rest  of  the  scholars  with  the  soldiers  and  the  townsmen."  He 
complacently  assures  us  that  "it  was  a  costly  and  noble  act; 
a  revival  of  the  bygone  ages  of  poetry"  ;  and  (he  proudly  adds) 
"neither  present  nor  past  time  could  furnish  any  record  of 
such  a  solemnity  having  ever  taken  place  in  England.  "2 

Meanwhile,  in  1188,  Baldwin,  archbishop  of  Canterbury^ 
had  been  sent  to  Wales  to  preach  the  coming  crusade.  Riding 
in  full  armour  at  the  head  of  the  procession,  with  the  white 
cross  gleaming  on  his  brestplate,  he  was  accompanied  by  Ranulf 
de  Glanville,  chief  justiciar  of  England,  and  attended  by  a 
young  man  of  slender  figure,  delicate  features  and  beetling 
eyebrows,  a  man  of  learning  and  wit,  and  with  no  small  share 
of  self-conceit,  "the  leader  of  the  clergy  of  St.  David's,  the 
scion  of  the  blood-royal  of  Wales."  The  archbishop's  exhor- 
tations produced  little  effect  on  the  common  people,  until  he 
prompted  Gerald  to  take  up  the  preaching.  At  Haverford 
Gerald  discoursed  in  Latin  and  also  in  French.  Although  the 
crowd  understood  neither  language,  they  w^ere  moved  to  tears 

'  I.  23.  2  I,  pp.  xlvii,  72  f. 


Giraldus  Cambrensis  217 

by  the  magic  of  his  eloquence  and  no  less  than  two  hundred 
joined  the  standard  of  the  cross.  ^  It  was  pleasantly  remarked 
soon  afterwards  that  if  Gerald  had  only  discoursed  m  Welsh 
not  a  single  soldier  would  have  failed  to  follow  that  banner. 
Three  thousand  recruits  were  enrolled ;  the  archbishop  and  the 
chief  justiciar  had  taken  the  cross  at  Radnor;  and  both  of 
them  kept  their  vow  and  died  in  1190  in  the  course  of  the 
crusade.  Gerald,  meanwhile,  had  been  appointed  to  write 
its  history  in  Latin  prose,  and  the  archbishop's  nephew,  Joseph 
of  Exeter,  to  write  it  in  verse.  Joseph  had  already  composed 
an  epic  on  the  Trojan  war,  England's  solitary  Latin  epic,  which 
was  long  attributed  to  Cornelius  Nepos,  notwithstanding  its 
dedication  to  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  celebrated 
the  crusade  in  his  Antiochcis,  now  represented  by  a  solitary 
fragment  on  the  Flos  Regum  Arthiirus.  Gerald,  however, 
neither  went  on  the  crusade,  nor  wrote  its  history;  he  paid  his 
fine  and  he  stayed  at  home  to  help  the  king  to  keep  the  peace 
in  his  native  land,  and  to  write  the  Itinerary  and  the  Descrip- 
tion of  Wales. 

When  the  bishopric  of  St.  David's  once  more  fell  vacant, 
Gerald  struggled  for  five  years  to  wm  the  prize  of  his  ambition, 
paying  three  visits  to  Rome,  in  1199,  1201  and  1203,  without 
success.  But  he  was  considered  by  himself  and  his  fellow- 
countrymen  to  have  waged  a  glorious  contest.  "  Many  and 
great  wars,"  said  the  prince  of  Powys,  "have  we  Welshmen 
waged  with  England,  but  none  so  great  and  fierce  as  his,  who 
fought  the  king  and  the  archbishop,  and  withstood  the  might 
of  the  whole  clergy  and  people  of  England,  for  the  honour  of 
Walesr^ 

He  had  already  declined  two  other  bishoprics  in  Wales  and 
four  in  Ireland.  When  the  see  of  St.  David's  was  again  vacant, 
in  1 2 14,  he  was  passed  over.  He  probably  died  in  1223,  and 
was  buried  in  the  precincts  of  the  cathedral  church,  for  whose 
independence  he  had  fought  so  long.  The  dismantled  tomb 
which  is  shown  as  his  probably  belongs  to  a  later  time.  He 
deserves  to  be  commemorated  in  that  cathedral  by  the  couplet 
which  he  placed  above  his  archidiaconal  stall,  and  also  en- 
shrined in  one  of  his  "  epitaphs  " : 

'  I,  pp.  xlix,  76.  2  i^  129 — III,  210. 


2i8  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

Vive  Deo,  tibi  tnors  reqiiies,  tibivita  labori; 
Vive  Deo;  mors  est  vivere,  vita  mori} 

The  first  volume  of  the  Rolls  edition  of  Giraldus  includes 
two  autobiographies  and  two  lists  of  his  writings.  Only  the 
most  important  need  here  be  noticed.  The  earliest  of  his 
works  is  the  Topography  of  Ireland.  The  first  book  gives  an 
account  of  its  physical  features,  and  its  birds  and  beasts;  the 
second  is  devoted  to  the  marv^els  of  the  country,  and  the  third 
to  the  early  history,  followed  by  a  description  of  the  manners, 
dress  and  condition  of  the  inhabitants.  One  of  the  MSS.  in 
the  British  Museum  has  m  the  margin  many  curious  coloured 
drawings  of  the  birds  and  beasts  described  by  the  author.  2  It 
is  to  this  work  that  we  owe  almost  all  our  knowledge  of  medie- 
val Ireland. 

It  was  followed  by  the  Conquest  of  Ireland,  a  narrative  of 
the  events  of  1 169-85.  This  is  marked  by  a  simpler  style  and 
a  more  sober  judgment  than  the  Topography,  and  is,  in  fact,  a 
historical  monograph  of  considerable  value.  But  there  is  much 
bias,  and  some  unfairness ;  and  an  air  of  unreality  is  produced 
by  the  Irish  chiefs,  who  have  Greek  patronymics,  and  harangue 
their  troops  with  quotations  from  Ovid  and  Caesar.  To- 
wards the  close  the  author  cites  the  ominous  Irish  prophecy 
that  "scarcely  before  the  Day  of  Judgment  will  Ireland  be 
wholly  subdued  by  the  English."^ 

The  Itinerary  of  Wales  takes  us  on  a  tour  of  one  month  in 
the  south,  and  only  eight  days  in  the  north.  Apart  from  its 
topographical  and  ecclesiastical  interest,  it  introduces  us  to 
Gerald  as  a  student  of  languages.  He  tells  us  of  a  priest  who, 
in  his  boyhood,  paid  a  visit  to  fairy-land,  and  learnt  the  lan- 
guage, which  proved  to  be  akin  to  Greek;  and  he  gives  us  one 
or  two  specimens  in  the  words  for  " salt"  and  "water, "  adding 
the  equivalents  in  Welsh,  English,  Irish,  German  and  French.* 
It  was  this  passage  that  once  prompted  Freeman  to  call  Gerald 
the  "father  of  comparative  philology."^  In  his  own  Latin 
Gerald  has  no  hesitation  in  using  werra  for  "war,"  and  knip- 

>  I,  364,  382. 

2  Bibl.  Reg.  13  b  viii  {c.  1200),  copied  in  J.  R.  Green's  Short  History,  ill. 
ed.  p.  225. 

3  V,  385.  *  VI,  77. 

5  Norman  Conquest,  v,  579;  cf.  Comparative  Politics,  486. 


Giraldus  Cambrensis  219 

■w/w5  for  "pen-knife. "1  At  Cardiff  we  incidentally  learn  that 
Henry  II  understood  English,  but  could  not  speak  it. 2  In  the 
south  our  attention  is  drawn  to  the  vestiges  of  Roman  splen- 
dour at  Caerleon  on  Usk,  and  to  the  old  Roman  walls  at 
Carmarthen. 

The  companion  volume,  called  the  Description  of  Wales, 
appeared  in  two  editions  (1194,  12 15).  The  author  patriotic- 
ally ascribes  to  his  fellow-countrymen  a  keenness  of  intellect 
that  enables  them  to  excel  in  whatever  study  they  pursue. 
He  extols  their  set  speeches  and  their  songs.  He  also  quotes 
examples  of  alliteration  in  Latin  and  Welsh.  The  following  are 
the  specimens  he  selects  from  the  EngHsh  of  his  day:  "god  is 
to-gedere  gamen  and  wisdom"  (it  is  good  to  be  merry  and 
wise);  "ne  halt  nocht  al  sor  isaid,  ne  al  sorghe  atwite"  (it 
boots  not  to  tell  every  woe  nor  upbraid  every  sorrow) ;  "  betere  is 
red  thene  rap,  and  liste  thene  lither  streingthe"  (better  is 
counsel  than  haste,  and  tact  than  vicious  strength)^.  Else- 
where he  tells  the  story  of  the  Englishwoman  who,  with  her 
mistress,  had  for  a  complete  year  attended  daily  mass,  at 
which  the  priest  had  (besides  the  oft-repeated  Oremus) 
always  used  the  introit  Rorate  cocli,  desuper;  on  finding  that  her 
mistress  had,  nevertheless,  been  disappointed  in  her  desires, 
she  indignantly  said  to  the  priest,  "  Rorisse  j^e  rone  ne  wrthe 
nan"  (your  rories  and  ories  are  all  to  no  purpose). "^  He  also 
quotes  the  phrase,  "God  holde  ]?e,  cuning"  (God  save  thee, 
king),  and  the  refrain  of  a  love-song,  "swete  lemman,  dhin 
are"  (sweet  mistress,  thy  favour).^  He  notes  that  the  lan- 
guage of  North  Wales  is  purer  than  that  of  the  South,  that  the 
language  of  Cornwall  and  Britanny  closely  resembles  Welsh, 
that  the  language  of  North  Wales  is  purer  than  that  of  the 
South,  that  the  language  of  the  south  of  England  (especially 
Devonshire)  is  purer  than  that  of  the  north  and  that  the  English 
works  of  Bede  and  King  Alfred  were  all  written  in  the  south- 
ern idiom. 6  He  also  tells  his  readers  how  Wales  may  be 
conquered,  how  it  should  be  governed  and  how  it  is  to  hold 
its  own. 

The  Gemma  Ecclesiastica  was  its  author's  favourite  work. 
It   may,    perhaps,    be   described    as   a   lengthy   archidiaconal 

»  II,  292.  2  VI,  64  f.  ■!   VI,  1S8. 

*  II,  128.  5  VI,  64;  II,  120;  cf.  IV,  209.     <>  VI,  177,  f. 


v/J 


220  English  Scholars  of  Paris 

charge  of  an  exceptionally  learned  and  lively  type.  It  certainly 
presents  us  with  a  vivid  picture  of  the  state  of  morality  and 
learning  in  Wales,  illustrated  by  not  a  few  stories  of  ignorance 
of  Latin  among  the  inferior  clergy.  Thus  a  priest  once  inter- 
preted "  St.  John  ante  portam  Latinam"  to  mean  that  St.  John, 
ante,  first,  portam,  brought,  Latinam,  the  Latin  language  (into 
England).^  This  ignorance,  which  even  extended  to  some  of 
the  higher  clergy,  is,  here  and  elsewhere,  attributed  to  the  ex- 
cessive study  of  law  and  logic.  ^ 

The  Book  of  his  Acts  and  Deeds,  in  the  midst  of  much  that 
is  purely  personal,  tells  the  story  of  the  holy  hermit  who  prayed 
that  he  might  attain  to  the  mystery  of  the  Latin  language.  He 
was  granted  the  gift  of  the  Latin  tongue,  without  that  of  the 
Latin  syntax;  but  he  successfully  overcame  all  difficulties  of 
moods  and  tenses  by  always  using  the  present  infinitive. 
Gerald  once  asked  this  hermit  to  pray  for  him  that  he  might 
understand  the  Scriptures.  The  hermit  warmly  grasped  his 
hand,  and  gravely  added :  "  Say  not  understand,  but  keep;  it  is 
a  vain  thing  to  understand  the  word  of  God,  and  not  to  keep 
it."3 

The  work  On  the  Instruction  of  a  Prince,  completed  after 
the  death  of  King  John  in  12 16,  is  divided  into  three  books. 
The  first,  on  the  duties  of  the  ideal  prince,  is  enriched  with 
many  quotations,  the  virtue  of  patience  being  illustrated  by 
nine,  and  the  modesty  of  princes  by  thirteen.  The  second 
and  third  include  a  history  of  the  life  and  times  of  Henry  IL 
The  main  interest  lies  in  the  sketches  of  the  characters  of  the 
royal  family.  Gerald  here  tells  the  story  of  the  finding  of  King 
Arthur's  body  at  Glastonbury  in  a  coffin  bearing  the  inscription, 
"  Here  lies  buried  the  famous  King  Arthur,  with  Guinevere 
his  second  wife,  in  the  Isle  of  Avalon.""* 

His  other  works  include  a  Life  of  Geoffrey  Plantagenet,  arch- 
bishop of  York,  and  several  lives  of  saints,  partly  suggested  by 
his  stay  at  Lincoln  in  1 196-8.  His  Collection  of  Extracts  from 
his  own  works  was,  naturally,  compiled  later  in  life.  Among 
his  Epistles  is  one  urging  Richard  I  to  befriend  men  of  letters,, 
"without  whom  all  hjs  glory  would  soon  pass  away."  ^  His- 
latest  work,  the  Mirror  of  the  Church,  depicts  the  principal 

'   II,  342.  2    II,   348;  in,  29  f.  3    l^  go  f. 

*  VIII,   126  f.  s  i^  243. 


Michael  Scot  221 

monastic  orders  of  the  time  in  violent  language  that,  not 
unnaturally,  led  the  monastic  copyists  to  neglect  transcribing, 
and  thus  preserving,  the  author's  writings.  The  only  MS.  of  this 
particular  work  that  has  survived  suffered  severely  in  a  fire  in 
the  Cottonian  library ;  but  the  sketch  of  the  state  of  learning 
with  which  it  opens,  had,  happily,  already  been  partly  tran- 
scribed by  Anthony  Wood.  In  the  last  book  Gerald  adds  a 
description  of  the  churches  in  Rome,  and  closes  his  writings 
with  an  impressive  picture  of  the  day  of  doom. 

To  the  end  of  his  life  Gerald  remained  true  to  his  early 
devotion  to  literature;  and  he  hopefully  looked  forward  to  the 
appreciation  of  posterity.*  Freeman,  in  estimating  the  his- 
torical value  of  his  writings,  justly  characterises  him  as  "  vain, 
garrulous"  and  "careless  as  to  minute  accuracy,"  but  as  also 
"one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  a  learned  age,"  "one  who, 
whatever  we  may  say  as  to  the  soundness  of  his  judgment, 
came  behind  few  in  the  sharpness  of  his  wits,"  "one  who 
looked  with  a  keen  if  not  an  impartial  eye  on  all  the  events 
and  controversies  of  his  own  time."^ 

Among  the  "English"  students  at  Paris  we  may  briefly 
mention  Michael  Scot,  who,  probably  before  1209,  learnt  Arabic 
at  Palermo,  where  he  lived  at  the  brilliant  court  of  Frederick 
II,  to  whom  he  dedicated  three  of  his  earliest  works.  Leaving 
Palermo  for  Toledo  about  1209,  he  there  completed  a  Latin 
rendering  of  two  Arabic  abstracts  of  Aristotle's  History  of 
Animals.  In  1223  he  returned  to  Palermo.  He  was  highly 
esteemed  as  a  physician  and  an  astrologer,  and  his  reputed 
skill  in  magic  has  been  celebrated  by  Dante,  Boccaccio  and 
Sir  Walter  Scott.  He  is  described  by  Roger  Bacon  as  intro- 
ducing to  the  scholars  of  the  west  certain  of  the  physical  and 
metaphysical  works  of  Aristotle,  with  the  commentators  on  the 
same.^  He  may  have  visited  Bologna  and  Paris  for  this 
purpose  about  1232.  He  probably  died  before  1235,  ^-^^ 
tradition  places  his  burial,  as  well  as  his  birth,  in  the  Lowlands 
of  Scotland. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Michael  Scot  was  ever  a  student 
at  Oxford.  Like  Cardinal  Curson  of  Kedleston  (d.  12 18),  and 
Alexander  of    Hales  (d.   1245),  and  the  able  mathematician 

»  V,  212,  411;  VI,  7.  2  VII,  p.  liii. 

3  Opus  Majus,  III,  66,  Bridges. 


222  Franciscans  and  Dominicans 

Johannes  de  Sacro  Bosco — probably  of  Holywood  in  Dumfries- 
shire— (d.  1252),  he  owed  his  sole  allegiance  to  Paris.  Stephen 
Langton  (d.  1228),  who,  similarly,  studied  in  Paris  only,  was 
restored  to  England  by  his  consecration  as  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury; his  successor  Edmund  of  Abingdon  (d.  1240),  owed 
his  first  allegiance  to  Oxford,  and  his  second  to  Paris. 

We  have  seen  that  the  university  of  Paris  originated  in  the 
cathedral  school  of  Notre- Dame.  The  education  of  Europe 
might  have  long  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  secular  clergy, 
but  for  the  rise  of  the  new  orders  of  the  Franciscans  and  the 
Dominicans  in  the  second  decade  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  old  monastic  orders  had  made  their  home  in  solitary 
places,  far  removed  from  the  world,  while  the  aim  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan order  was  not  to  withdraw  to  the  lonely  valleys  and 
mountains  but  to  work  in  the  densely  crowded  towns — 

Bernardus  valles,  monies  Benedictus  amabat, 
Oppida  Franciscus. 

The  order  of  the  Franciscans  was  founded  at  Assisi  in  1 2 10 ; 
that  of  the  Dominicans,  at  Toulouse  in  1215 ;  and,  at  an  early 
date,  both  orders  resolved  on  establishing  themselves  in  the 
great  seats  of  education.  The  Dominicans  fixed  their  head- 
quarters at  Bologna  and  Paris  (12 17),  besides  settling  at  Ox- 
ford (1221)  and  Cambridge  (1274);  while  the  Franciscans 
settled  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  1224,  and  at  Paris  in  1230. 
When  once  these  orders  had  been  founded,  all  the  great 
schoolmen  were  either  Franciscans  or  Dominicans.  Intellect- 
ually, the  dogmatic  Dominicans  were  mainly  characterised  by 
a  conservative  orthodoxy,  while  the  emotional  Franciscans 
w^ere  less  opposed  to  novel  forms  of  opinion.  In  Paris,  the 
greatest  Dominican  teachers  were  Albertus  Magnus  (1193- 
1280)  and  his  favourite  pupil,  the  great  Thomas  Aquinas 
{c.  1 225-7-1 274),  who  brought  scholasticism  to  its  highest  de- 
velopment by  harmonising  Aristotelianism  with  the  doctrines 
of  the  church.  The  Angelic  Doctor  was  the  foremost  of  the 
intellectual  sons  of  Saint  Dominic,  the  saint  who  (in  Dante's 
phrase)  "for  wisdom  was  on  earth  a  splendour  of  cherubic 
light."  Meanwhile,  Saint  Francis,  who  was  "all  seraphic 
in  ardour,"  and  felt  no  sympathy  whatsoever  for  the  intellect- 
ual and  academic  world,  nevertheless  counted  among  his  fol- 


Alexander  of  Hales  223 

lowers  men  of  academic,  and  even  more  than  academic,  renown . 
Foremost  of  these  were  Alexander  of  Hales,  Roger  Bacon, 
Duns  Scotus  and  William  of  Ockham. 

Alexander  of  Hales,  a  native  of  Gloucestershire,  studied 
in  Paris  at  a  time  when  the  Physics  and  Metaphysics  were  not 
yet  translated  into  Latin,  and  also  later,  when  their  study 
had  been  expressly  prohibited  (12 15).  This  prohibition  lasted 
until  the  dispersion  of  the  university  in  1229;  and  (although 
he  may  have  been  lecturer  to  the  Franciscans  at  an  earlier 
date)  it  was  not  until  the  return  of  the  university  in  1231 
that  he  actually  joined  the  order.  As  one  of  the  leading 
teachers  in  Paris,  he  had  a  distinguished  career.  In  his  scholas- 
tic teaching  he  was  an  exponenet  of  realism.  He  was  entrusted 
by  Innocent  IV  with  the  duty  of  preparing  a  comprehensive 
Summa  Theologiae;  and  the  ponderous  work,  which  remained 
unfinished  at  his  death  in  1245,  was  completed  by  his  pupils 
seven  years  later.  In  its  general  plan  it  follows  the  method  of 
Peter  Lombard,  being  one  of  the  earliest  comments  on  the  Mas- 
ter of  the  Sentences.  It  was  examined  and  approved  by  sev- 
enty divines,  and  the  author  became  known  as  the  Irrefragable 
Doctor;  but  a  still  greater  Franciscan,  Roger  Bacon,  who  de- 
scribes the  vast  work  as  tamquam  pondiis  unius  equi,  declares 
that  it  was  behind  the  times  in  matters  of  natural  science, 
and  was  already  being  neglected,  even  by  members  of  the  au- 
thor's own  order. ^  The  MS.  of  Alexander's  Exposition  of  the 
Apocalypse,  in  the  Cambridge  University  Library,  includes 
a  portrait  of  the  author,  who  is  represented  as  reverently 
kneeling  in  the  habit  of  a  Franciscan  friar.  2 

St.  Francis  himself  regarded  with  suspicion  the  learning  of 
his  age.  He  preferred  to  have  his  followers  poor  in  heart  and 
understanding,  as  well  as  in  their  dress  and  their  other  belong- 
ings. Perfect  poverty  was,  however,  obviously  incompatible 
with  the  purchase  of  books.  A  provincial  minister  of  the 
order,  who  happened  to  possess  books  of  considerable  value, 
was  not  allowed  to  retain  them.  In  the  same  spirit,  on  hearing 
that  a  great  doctor  in  Paris  had  entered  the  order,  St.  Francis 
said  to  his  followers:  "  I  am  afraid,  my  sons,  that  such  doctors 
will  be  the  destruction  of  my  vineyard."     The  preaching  of 

'  opus  Minus,  326  f. 

2  Reproduced  in  J.  R.  Green's  Short  History,  ill.  ed.,  p.  287. 


224  Franciscans  of  Oxford 

the  Franciscans  among  the  common  people  owed  its  force  less 
to  their  learning  than  to  their  practical  experience.  Their  care 
for  the  sick,  and  even  for  the  leper,  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
medical  and  physical  and  experimental  science ;  and  they  grad- 
ually devoted  themselves  to  a  more  scientific  study  of  theol- 
ogy. In  their  schools  the  student  was  expected  to  take  notes 
and  to  reproduce  them  in  the  form  of  a  lecture,  and  this  prac- 
tice, combined  with  the  disputation  between  the  teacher  and 
the  learner,  brought  into  play  readiness,  memory  and  inven- 
tion. Speculative  theology  was,  in  their  hands,  modified  by 
the  hard  facts  of  practical  life.  Their  sermons,  however,  not 
unfrequently  appealed  to  the  imagination  and  the  feelings,  and 
did  not  disdain  either  the  sparkling  anecdote  or  the  pleasantly 
didactic  allegory.  ^ 

In  September,  1224,  two  years  before  the  death  of  the 
founder,  a  little  band  of  nine  Franciscans  was  ferried  across 
the  Channel  by  the  monks  of  Fecamp  and  found  a  welcome  at 
the  priory  of  Canterbury.  Some  of  them  pressed  forward  to 
London,  where  they  were  received  by  the  Dominicans,  while 
two  of  them  went  on  to  Oxford.  The  Dominicans  had  already 
settled  there  in  1221,  when  the  church  of  St.  Edward  had 
been  assigned  them  in  the  Jewry,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  town, 
and  a  school  of  theology  had  been  opened  under  Robert  Bacon. 
For  about  a  week  the  two  Franciscans  "  ate  in  the  refectory 
and  slept  in  the  dormitory"  of  the  Dominicans  2;  then  they 
hired  a  house  near  St.  Ebbe's  in  the  south-west  quarter,  whence 
they  soon  moved  to  a  marshy  plot  of  ground  outside  the  walls. 
Part  of  that  plot  was  known  as  Paradise.  In  1245  they  were 
followed  by  the  Dominicans,  who  left  the  centre  of  the  town 
for  a  suburban  spot  whose  memory  is  now  preserved  in  the 
name  of  Black  Friars  Road.  In  olden  days,  the  Trill  mill 
stream  flowed  past  the  Grey  Friars  mill  and  beneath  the 
"Preachers'  Bridge,"  until  it  reached  the  two  mills  of  the 
Black  Friars. 

It  was  probably  a  migration  from  Paris  that  had,  mean- 
while, made  Oxford  a  studium  generate,  or  a  publicly  recognised 
place  of  studious  resort.  In  1167,  John  of  Salisbury,  then  in 
exile  owing  to  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Becket,  sent  a  letter 

»  Brewer's  Preface  to  Monuntenta  Franciscana,  i,  xxviii-lv. 
2  Alon.  Franc,  i,  5-9;  11,  9. 


Grosseteste  and  the  Franciscans  225 

to  Peter  the  Writer,  stating  that  "  the  votaries  of  Mercury 
were  so  depressed,  that  France,  the  mildest  and  most  civiHsed 
of  nations,  had  expelled  her  alien  scholars  "  ^ ;  and,  either  in  1 1 65 
or  in  1 169,  at  a  time  when  many  Masters  and  Scholars  beneficed 
in  England  were  studying  in  Paris,  Henry  II  required  all  clerks 
who  possessed  revenues  in  England  to  return  within  three 
months.  It  has  been  reasonably  assumed  that  many  of  the 
students  thus  expelled  or  recalled,  from  Paris  migrated  to 
Oxford. 2  But  the  earliest  certain  reference  to  the  schools  of 
Oxford  belongs  to  1189,  when  "all  the  doctors  in  the  different 
faculties,"  and  their  more  distinguished  pupils,  and  the  rest  of 
the  scholars,  were  (as  we  have  seen)  entertained  by  Giraldus 
Cambrensis  on  the  second  and  third  days  of  his  memorable 
recitation.^ 

The  Franciscan  friars  of  1224  were  well  received  by  the 
university,  and,  in  those  early  times,  were  on  excellent  terms 
with  the  secular  clergy.  They  were  men  of  cheerful  temper, 
and  possessed  the  courtesy  and  charm  that  comes  from  sym- 
pathy. From  Eccleston's  account  of  the  coming  of  the  Friars 
Minor  we  learn  that,  "  as  Oxford  was  the  principal  place  of 
study  in  England,  where  the  whole  body  (or  universitas)  of 
scholars  was  wont  to  congregate,  Friar  Agnellus  (the  provincial 
Head  of  the  Order)  caused  a  school  of  sufficiently  decent 
appearance  to  be  built  on  the  site  where  the  Friars  had  settled, 
and  induced  Robert  Grosseteste  of  holy  memory  to  lecture  to 
them  there;  under  him  they  made  extraordinary  progress  in 
sermons,  as  well  as  in  subtle  moral  themes  suitable  for  preach- 
ing," and  continued  to  do  so  until  "he  was  transferred  by 
Divine  Providence  from  the  lecturer's  chair  to  the  episcopal 
see."^  He  was  already  interested  in  them  about  12255 ;  and,  it 
was,  possibly,  before  1231  that  he  was  appointed  their  lecturer. 
He  was  then  more  than  fifty  years  of  age,  not  a  friar,  but  a 
secular  priest,  and  one  of  the  most  influential  men  in  Oxford. 
To  the  friars  he  was  much  more  than  a  lecturer;  he  was  their 


'  Ep.  225  (Migne,  P.  L.  cxcix,  253  a). 

2  Rashdall's  Universities  of  Europe,  11,  329  f. 

3  Giraldus,  i,  72  f.,  410;  in,  92,  where  " M agister  Gualterus,  magister 
Oxoniensis,  archidiaconiis "  is  probably  a  mistake  for  "Magister  Gualterus 
Mapus,  Oxoniensis  archidiaconus"  (cf.  i,  412). 

*  Mon.  Franc,  i,  37;  cf.  ib.  64-66.  s  Ep.  2. 

VOL.    I— IS 


226  Franciscans  of  Oxford 

sympathetic  friend  and  adviser,  and,  after  he  had  become 
bishop  of  Lincoln  in  1235,  he  repeatedly  commended  the  zeal, 
piety  and  usefulness  of  their  order.  About  1238,  he  wrote  in 
praise  of  them  to  Gregory  IX :  "  Your  Holiness  may  be  assured 
that  in  England  inestimable  benefits  have  been  produced  by 
the  Friars ;  they  illuminate  the  whole  land  by  their  preaching 
and  learning."^ 

Grosseteste,  a  native  of  Stradbroke  in  Suffolk,  was  edu- 
cated at  Oxford.  It  is  often  stated  that  he  also  studied  in 
Paris;  but  of  this  there  is  no  contemporary  evidence.  It  is 
true  that,  as  bishop  of  Lincoln,  he  writes  to  the  regents  in 
theology  at  Oxford,  recommending  them  to  abide  by  the  sys- 
tem of  lecturing  adopted  by  the  regents  in  theology  in  Paris,  ^ 
but  he  says  nothing  of  Paris  in  connection  with  his  own  edu- 
cation. While  he  was  still  at  Oxford  he  held  an  office  cor- 
responding to  that  of  the  chancellor  in  Paris,  but  he  was  not 
allowed  by  the  then  bishop  of  Lincoln  to  assume  any  higher 
title  than  that  of  M agister  Scholarum.^  At  Oxford  he  pre- 
pared commentaries  on  some  of  the  logical  treatises  of  Aristotle, 
and  on  the  Physics,  and  a  translation  of  the  Ethics,  w^hich 
appeared  about  1244,  was  known  under  his  name.  He  him- 
self produced  a  Latin  rendering  of  the  "middle  recension  of" 
the  Epistles  of  Ignatius,  beside  commenting  on  Dionysius  the 
Areopagite,  and  causing  a  translation  to  be  made  of  the  Testa- 
ments of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  the  Greek  MS.  of  which  (now 
in  the  Cambridge  Library)  had  been  brought  from  Athens  by 
his  archdeacon,  John  of  Basingstoke.  In  his  Compendium 
Scientiarum  he  classified  all  the  departments  of  knowledge 
recognised  in  his  day.  The  printed  list  of  his  works  extends 
over  twenty-five  quarto  pages  ■* ;  it  includes  treatises  on  theo- 
logy, essays  on  philosophy,  a  practical  work  on  husbandry.  Per- 
haps the  most  interesting  of  his  works  is  a  poem  in  1757  lines 
in  praise  of  the  Virgin  and  Son,  an  exquisite  allegory  called 
the  Chdteau  d' Amour,  originally  written  in  "romance"  for 
those  who  had  ne  letture  ne  clergie,  and  soon  translated  from 
French  into  Latin,  and  ultimately  into  English.  Robert  de 
Brunne,  in  his  translation  of  the  Manuel  des  Pechiez,  tells  us 
of  the  bishop's  love  for  the  music  of  the  hai-p. 

i  Ep.  s8;ci-  Epp.  20,  41,  6-j.  ^Ep.  123. 

'  Lincoln  Register  (Rashdall,  11,35511.  2).       *  Life  by  Pegge  (1793). 


Adam  Marsh  227 

In  the  opinion  of  Luard,  the  editor  of  his  Letters,  "  probably 
no  one  has  had  a  greater  influence  upon  English  thought  and 
English  literature  for  the  two  centuries  that  followed  his  age." 
Wyclif  ranks  him  even  above  Aristotle,  ^  and  Gower  calls  him 
"the  grete  clerc."^  Apart  from  his  important  position  as  a 
patriot,  a  reformer  and  a  statesman,  and  as  a  friend  of  Simon 
de  Montfort,  he  gave,  in  the  words  of  his  latest  biographer,  F. 
S.  Stevenson,  "a  powerful  impulse  to  almost  every  department 
of  intellectual  activity,  revived  the  study  of  neglected  lan- 
guages and  grasped  the  central  idea  of  the  unity  of  knowledge." 
One  of  the  earliest  leaders  of  thought  in  Oxford,  a  promoter  of 
Greek  learning,  and  an  interpreter  of  Aristotle,  he  went  far 
beyond  his  master  in  the  experimental  knowledge  of  the  physi- 
cal sciences.  Roger  Bacon  lauds  his  knowledge  of  science,  and 
he  is  probably  referring  to  Grosseteste  when  he  says  that  no 
lectures  on  optics  "have  as  yet  been  given  in  Paris,  or  any- 
where else  among  the  Latins,  except  twice  at  Oxford."  ^  Mat- 
thew Paris,  who  resented  his  zeal  for  the  reform  of  the  mon- 
asteries, generously  pays  the  following  tribute  to  his  memory : 

Thus  the  saintly  .  .  .  bishop  of  Lincoln  passed  away  from  the 
exile  of  this  world,  which  he  never  loved.  ...  He  had  been  the  rebuker 
of  pope  and  king,  the  corrector  of  bishops,  the  reformer  of  monks, 
the  director  of  priests,  the  instructor  of  clerks,  the  patron  of  scholars, 
the  preacher  of  the  people,  .  .  the  careful  student  of  the  Scriptures, 
the  hammer  and  the  contemner  of  the  Romans.  At  the  table  of 
bodily  food,  he  was  liberal,  courteous  and  affable:  at  the  table  of 
spiritual  food,  devout,  tearful  and  penitent:  as  a  prelate,  sedulous, 
venerable  and  never  weary  in  well-doing.  ■* 

Grosseteste's  friend  Adam  Marsh,  who  had  been  educated 
under  him  at  Oxford  and  had  entered  the  priesthood,  joined 
the  Franciscan  order  shortly  after  1226.  The  first  four  lec- 
turers to  the  Franciscans  in  Oxford  (beginning  with  Grosse- 
teste) were  seculars;  the  first  Franciscan  to  hold  that  office 
was  Adam  Marsh,  ^  who  was  probably  appointed  for  the  year 
1247-8.  Provision  w^as  then  made  for  a  regular  succession  of 
teachers,  and  soon  there  were  fifty  Franciscan  lectureships 
in  various  parts  of  England.     Out  of  love  for  Adam  ]\Iarsh, 

>  Trial,  iv,  c.  3. 

2  Conf.  Am.  iv,  234.  »  Opera  Inedita,  33,  37,  472. 

*  Chronica  Majora,  v,  407,  ed.  Luard.     *  Mon.  Franc,  i,  38. 


2  28  Franciscans  of  Oxford 

Grosseteste  left  his  library  to  the  Oxford  Franciscans.  ^  Like 
Grosseteste,  he  is  a  friend  and  adviser  to  Simon  de  Montfort, 
and  faithfully  tells  him  that  "he  who  can  rule  his  own  temper 
is  better  than  he  who  stoiTns  a  city."^  The  king  and  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury  urged  his  appointment  as  bishop 
of  Ely;  but  Rome  decided  in  favour  of  Hugo  de  Balsham  (1257), 
the  future  founder  of  Peterhouse  (i  284) .  In  his  Letters  Marsh's 
style  is  less  classical  than  that  of  Grosseteste;  but  the  attain- 
ments of  both  of  these  lecturers  to  the  Oxford  Franciscans  are 
warmly  eulogised  by  their  pupil  Roger  Bacon.  He  mentions 
them  in  good  company — immediately  after  Solomon,  Aristotle 
and  Avicenna,  describing  both  of  them  as  "perfect  in  divine 
and  human  wisdom."  ^  On  the  death  of  Alexander  of  Hales 
(1245),  Grosseteste  was  afraid  that  Adam  Marsh  would  be 
captured  by  Paris  to  fill  the  vacant  chair.*  His  Letters,  his 
only  surviving  work,  give  him  no  special  claim  to  those  scho- 
lastic qualities  of  clearness  and  precision  that  were  possibly  in- 
dicated in  his  traditional  title  of  Doctor  illustris. 

Roger  Bacon,  a  native  of  Ilchester,  was  the  most  brilliant 
\^'  representative  of  the  Franciscan  order  in  Oxford.     He  there 

attended  the  lectures  of  Edmund  Rich  of  Abingdon,  who  had 
studied  in  Paris,  who  could  preach  in  French  and  who  was 
possibly  himself  the  French  translator  of  his  principal  Latin 
w^ork,  the  Speculum  Ecclesiae.  Rich  was  the  first  in  Roger 
Bacon's  day  to  expound  the  Sophistici  Elenchi  at  Oxford.  ^ 
It  was  probably  under  the  influence  of  Grosseteste  and  Marsh 
that  Bacon  entered  the  Franciscan  order,  a  society  which, 
doubtless,  had  its  attractions  for  his  studious  temperament. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  ordained  in  1233.  Before  1245  he  left 
Oxford  for  Paris.  He  there  distinguished  himself  as  a  teacher ; 
but  he  had  little  sympathy  with  the  scholasticism  of  the  day, 
and  he  accordingly  returned  to  England  about  1250. 

In  the  order  of  St.  Francis  there  was  room  for  freedom  of 
thought,  no  less  than  for  mystic  devotion;  but,  some  seven 
years  later,  so  soon  as  the  party  of  the  mystics  was  represented 
in  the  new  general  of  that  body.  Bacon  fell  under  suspicion 

«  Mon.  Franc,  i,  185.  2  75. ^  j_  264. 

3  Opus  Tertium,  c.  22  f.,  25.  ^  Ep.  334. 

s  Contp.  Theol.  (cp.  J.  E.  Sandys,  Hw/ory  of  Classical  Scholarship,  i,  592, 
ed.  2,  1906). 


Roger  Bacon  229 

for  his  liberal  opinions,  and,  by  command  of  the  "seraphic" 
Bonaventura,  was  sent  to  Paris  and  there  kept  in  strict  seclu- 
sion for  ten  years  (1257-67).  He  probably  owed  his  partial 
release  to  the  good-will  of  Clement  IV,  who  had  heard  of  the 
studies  of  the  Franciscan  friar  before  his  own  elevation  to  the 
papal  see,  and,  by  a  letter  written  at  Viterbo  on  22  June,  1266, 
drew  him  from  his  obscurity  and  neglect  by  pressing  him  for  an 
account  of  his  researches.  Thereupon,  in  the  w^onderfully 
brief  space  of  some  eighteen  months,  the  grateful  and  enthusi- 
astic student  wrote  three  memorable  works,  the  Opus  Ma  jus, 
the  Opus  Minus  and  the  Opus  Tertium  (1267).  These  were 
followed  by  his  Compendium  Studii  Philosophiae  (12 7 1-2),  and 
by  a  Greek  Grammar  of  uncertain  date.  In  his  Compendium, 
he  had  attacked  the  clergy  and  the  monastic  orders  and  the 
scholastic  pedants  of  the  day;  and,  by  a  chapter  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans held  in  Paris  in  1278  he  was,  on  these  and,  doubtless, 
other  grounds,  condemned  for  "certain  suspected  novelties" 
of  opinion.  Accordingly,  he  was  once  more  placed  under  re- 
straint ;  but  he  had  again  been  released  before  writing  his  Com- 
pendium Studii  Theologiae  (1292).  At  Oxford  he  died,  and 
was  buried  among  the  Friars  Minor,  probably  in  1294. 

Before  entering  the  order,  he  had  written  nothing  on  science ; 
and,  after  his  admission,  he  came  under  the  rule  that  no  friar 
should  be  permitted  the  use  of  writing  materials,  or  enjoy 
the  liberty  of  publishing  his  work,  without  the  previous  ap- 
proval of  his  superiors.  The  penalty  was  the  confiscation  of 
the  work,  with  many  days  of  fasting  on  bread  and  water.  He 
had  only  written  a  few  "  chapters  on  various  subjects  at  the 
request  of  his  friends."  ^  Possibly,  he  is  here  referring  to  the 
pages  on  the  secret  works  of  nature  and  art,  on  Greek  fire,  on 
gunpowder  and  on  the  properties  of  the  magnet,  ^  on  which  he 
had  discoursed  in  letters  addressed  either  to  William  of  Au- 
vergne  (d.  1248),  or  to  John  of  Basingstoke  (d.  1252).  He 
was  surrounded  with  difficulties;  he  found  philosophy  and 
theology  neglected  in  the  interests  of  civil  law,  and  despised 
under  the  delusion  that  the  world  knew  enough  of  them  already. 
He  had  spent  forty  years  in  the  study  of  the  sciences  and  lan- 
guages, and  during  the  first  twenty  years  specially  devoted 
by  him  to  the  attainment  of  fuller  knowledge  (possibly  before 

1  Opera  Inedita,  13.  ^  lb.,  536  f. 


230  Franciscans  of  Oxford 

joining  a  medicant  order),  he  had  expended  large  sums  on  his 
learned  pursuits.  None  would  now  lend  him  any  money  to 
meet  the  expense  of  preparing  his  works  for  the  pope,  and  he 
could  not  persuade  any  one  that  there  was  the  slightest  use  in 
science.  ^  Thankful,  however,  for  the  pope's  interest  in  his 
studies,  he  set  to  work  with  enthusiasm  and  delight,  though 
he  was  strictly  bound  by  the  vow  of  poverty,  and  had  now 
nothing  of  his  own  to  spend  on  his  literary  and  scientific 
labours. 

His  principal  works,  beginning  with  the  three  prepared 
for  the  pope,  are  as  follows : 

The  Opus  Majus,  which  remained  unknown  until  its  pub- 
lication by  Samuel  Jebb  in  1733.  It  has  since  been  recognised 
as  the  Encyclopedie  and  the  Organon  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
It  IS  divided  into  seven  parts:  (i)  the  cause  of  human  igno- 
rance; (2)  the  connection  between  philosophy  and  theology; 
(3)  the  study  of  language;  (4)  mathematical  science;  (5)  physics 
(especially  optics);  (6)  experimental  science;  and  (7)  moral 
philosophy.  The  part  on  language  was  preserv^ed  in  an 
imperfect  form ;  that  on  moral  philosophy  was  omitted  in  Jebb's 
edition. 

The  Opus  Minus  was  first  published  by  John  Sherren 
Brewer  in  ,1859  (with  portions  of  the  Opus  Tertium  and  the 
Compendium  Studii  Philosophiae).  It  was  written  partly  to 
elucidate  certain  points  in  the  Opus  Majus,  partly  to  meet  the 
risk  of  the  earlier  treatise  failing  to  reach  its  destination. 
It  enters  more  fully  into  an  examination  of  the  schoolmen; 
it  exposes  the  pretensions  of  the  Franciscan  Alexander  of 
Hales,  and  of  an  unnamed  Dominican.  It  recapitulates  the 
passages  in  the  previous  w^ork  which  the  author  deems  spe- 
cially important,  and  discusses  the  six  great  errors  that  stand 
in  the  way  of  the  studies  of  Latin  Christendom,  namely  (i) 
the  subjection  of  theology  to  philosoph}^;  (2)  the  general 
ignorance  of  science;  (3)  implicit  trust  in  the  dicta  of  the  earlier 
schoolmen;  (4)  exaggerated  respect  for  the  lecturers  on  the 
Sentences,  in  comparison  with  the  expounders  of  the  text  of 
the  Scriptures;  (5)  mistakes  in  the  Vulgate;  (6)  errors  in  the 
spiritual  interpretation  of  Scripture  due  to  ignorance  of  Hebrew, 
Greek,   Latin,    archaeology   and   natural    history,    and   those 

^ Opera  Inedita.,  16,  59,  65. 


Roger  Bacon  231 

due  to  misunderstanding  of  the  hidden  meaning  of  the  Word 
of  God.  After  a  break,  there  next  follows  a  comparison  be- 
tween the  opinions  of  French  and  English  naturalists  on  the 
elementary  principles  of  matter,  and,  after  a  second  break,  an 
account  of  the  various  metals.  Only  a  fragment,  equivalent 
to  some  80  pages  of  print,  has  been  preserved  in  a  single  MS. 
in  the  Bodleian. 

The  Opus  Tertium,  though  written  later,  is  intended  to 
serve  as  an  introduction  to  the  two  previous  works.  In  the 
first  twenty  chapters  we  have  an  account  of  the  writer's  per- 
sonal history,  his  opinions  on  education,  and  on  the  impedi- 
ments thrown  in  its  way  by  the  ignorance,  prejudice,  contempt, 
carelessness  and  indifference  of  his  contemporaries.  He  next 
reverts  to  points  that  had  been  either  omitted  or  inadequately 
explained  in  his  earlier  writings.  After  a  digression  on  vacuum, 
motion  and  space,  he  dwells  on  the  utility  of  mathematics, 
geography,  chronology  and  geometry,  adding  remarks  on 
accents  and  aspirates,  and  on  punctuation,  metre,  and  rhythm. 
A  subsequent  defence  of  mathematics,  with  an  excursus  on 
the  reform  of  the  calendar,  leads  to  a  discourse  on  chanting  and 
on  preaching. 

The  above  three  works,  even  in  their  incomplete  form,  fill 
as  many  as  1344  pages  of  print.  It  was  these  three  that  were 
completed  in  the  brief  interval  of  eighteen  months. 

The  Compendium  Studii  Philosophiae,  imperfectly  preserved 
in  a  single  MS.  in  the  British  Museum,  begins  with  reflections 
on  the  beauty  and  utility  of  wisdom.  The  impediments  to  its 
progress  are  subsequently  considered,  and  the  causes  of  human 
error  investigated.  The  author  criticises  the  current  Latin 
grammars  and  lexicons,  and  urges  the  importance  of  the  study 
of  Hebrew,  adding  as  many  as  thirteen  reasons  for  the  study 
of  Greek,  followed  by  an  introduction  to  Greek  grammar. 

The  above  is  only  the  beginning  of  an  encyclopaedic  work 
on  logic,  mathematics,  physics,  metaphysics  and  ethics.  The 
part  on  physics  is  alone  preserved,  and  extracts  from  that  part 
have  been  printed.^ 

The  Greek  Grammar  may  be  convenientl}^  placed  after  the 
above  Compendium,  and  before  the  next.  The  author's  know- 
ledge of  Greek  was  mainly  derived  from  the  Greeks  of  his  own 

>  Eniile  Charles,  369-91. 


/ 


232  Franciscans  of  Oxford 

day,  probably  from  some  of  the  Greek  teachers  invited  to 
England  by  Grosseteste.  ^  He  invariably  adopts  the  late  By- 
zantine pronunciation;  and,  in  his  general  treatment  of  gram- 
mar he  follows  the  Byzantine  tradition.  This  work  was  first 
published  by  the  Cambridge  University  Press  in  1902. 

The  Compendium  Studii  Theologiae,  Bacon's  latest  work 
deals  with  causes  of  error,  and  also  with  logic  and  grammar  in 
reference  to  theology.  The  above  parts  are  extant  in  an  im- 
perfect form,  and  only  extracts  from  them  have  been  printed 
from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum.^  A  "  fifth  part,"  on  optics, 
is  preserved  in  a  nearly  complete  condition  in  the  same  library. 

Roger  Bacon  was  the  earliest  of  the  natural  philosophers 
of  western  Europe.  In  opposition  to  the  physicists  of  Paris, 
he  urged  that  "  enquiry  should  begin  with  the  simplest  objects 
of  science,  and  rise  gradually  to  the  higher  and  higher,"  every 
observation  being  controlled  by  experiment.  In  science  he  was 
at  least  a  century  in  advance  of  his  time;  and,  in  spite  of  the 
long  and  bitter  persecutions  that  he  endured,  he  was  full  of 
hope  for  the  future.  He  has  been  described  by  Diderot  as 
"  one  of  the  most  surprising  geniuses  that  nature  had  ever 
produced,  and  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  of  men."  He 
left  no  disciple.  His  unknown  grave  among  the  tombs  of  the 
Friars  Minor  was  marked  by  no  monument ;  a  tower,  tradition- 
ally known  as  "  Friar  Bacon's  Study,"  stood,  until  1779,  on  the 
old  Grand  Pont  (the  present  Folly  Bridge)  of  Oxford.  The 
fact  that  he  had  revived  the  study  of  mathematics  was  recorded 
by  an  anonymous  writer  about  1370.^  A  long  passage  in  his 
Optis  Majus,'^  on  the  distance  between  the  extreme  east  and 
west  of  the  habitable  globe,  inserted  (without  mention  of  its 
source)  in  the  Imago  Mundi  of  Pierre  d'Ailly,  was  thence 
quoted  by  Columbus  in  1498  as  one  of  the  authorities  that 
had  prompted  him  to  venture  on  his  great  voyages  of  discovery. 
Meanwhile,  in  popular  repute,  Friar  Bacon  was  regarded  only  as 
an  alchemist  and  a  necromancer.  During  the  three  centuries 
subsequent  to  his  death,  only  four  of  his  minor  works;  those  on 
Alchemy,  on  the  Power  of  Art  and  Nature  and  on  the  Cure  of 
Old  Age,  were  published  in  1485-15 90.     Like  Vergil,  he  was 

•  Comp.  Phil.  434.  2  Emile  Charles,  410-6. 

3  Little's  Grey  Friars  at  Oxford,  195  n. 
<  Opiis  Majlis,  ed.  Bridges,  i,  xxxiii,  290. 


Roger  Bacon  233 

reputed  to  have  used  a  "  glass  prospective"  of  wondrous  power, 
and,  like  others  in  advance  of  their  times,  such  as  Gerbert  of 
Aurillac,  Albertus  Magnus  and  Grosseteste,  to  have  constructed 
a  "  brazen  head  "  that  possessed  a  faculty  of  speech.  The  pop- 
ular legend  was  embodied  in  The  Famous  Historie  of  Fryer 
Bacon,  in  Greene's  Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay  {c.  1587)  ^ 
and  in  Terilo's  satire  of  1604.  At  Frankfurt,  the  parts  of  the 
Op^ls  Majus  dealing  with  mathematics  and  optics  were  pub- 
lished in  1 6 14;  but  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  passed  before 
a  large  portion  of  the  remainder  was  published  in  England 
(1733),  and  the  same  interval  of  time  preceded  the  first  appear- 
ance of  the  Opera  Inedita  (1859).  The  seventh  part  of  the 
Opus  Majus,  that  on  moral  philosophy,  was  not  printed  until 
1897.  But  the  rehabilitation  of  Roger  Bacon,  begun  by 
Brewer  in  1859,  had,  happily,  meanwhile  been  independently 
completed  by  Emile  Charles  in  1861. 

Friar  Bacon  is  associated  in  legend  with  Friar  Bungay,  or 
Thomas  de  Bungay  (in  Suffolk),  who  exemplifies  the  close  con- 
nection between  the  Franciscan  order  and  the  eastern  counties. 
Bungay  lectured  to  the  Franciscans  at  Oxford,  and  afterwards 
at  Cambridge,  where  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Francis- 
can convent.  As  head  of  the  order  in  England,  he  was  suc- 
ceeded {c.  1275)  by  John  Peckham,  who  had  studied  at  Paris 
under  Bonaventura,  had  joined  the  Franciscans  at  Oxford  and 
was  archbishop  of  Canterbury  from  1279  to  1292.  At  Oxford, 
a  number  of  grammatical,  logical,  philosophical  and  theological 
doctrines  taught  by  the  Dominicans,  and  already  condemned 
by  the  Dominican  archbishop,  Robert  Kilwardby  (1276),  a 
Master  of  Arts  of  Paris,  famous  as  a  commentator  on  Priscian, 
were  condemned  once  more  by  the  Franciscan  archbishop, 
Peckham  (1284).  Thomas  Aquinas  had  held,  with  Aristotle, 
that  the  individualising  principle  was  not  form  but  matter — 
an  opinion  which  was  regarded  as  inconsistent  with  the  medie- 
val theory  of  the  future  state.  This  opinion,  disapproved  by 
Kilwardby,  was  attacked  in  1284  by  William  de  la  Mare, 
probably  an  Englishman,  possibly  an  Oxonian,  certainly  a 
Franciscan.  Both  of  them  may  have  owed  something  to 
Roger  Bacon.  They  were  certainly  among  the  precursors  of  the 
type  of  realism  represented  by  Duns  Scotus,  the  Doctor  suhtilis. 

lEd.  A.  W.  Ward  (1878),  pp.  xviii-xxvii. 


234  Franciscans  of  Oxford 

John  Duns  Scotus  was  a  Franciscan  in  Oxford  in  1300. 
There  is  no  satisfactory  evidence  as  to  the  place  of  his  birth; 
a  note  in  a  catalogue  at  Assisi  (138 1)  simply  describes  him  as 
de  provincia  Hiberniae.'^  At  Oxford  he  lectured  on  the  Sen- 
tences. Late  in  1304,  he  was  called  to  incept  as  D.D.  in  Paris, 
where  he  probably  taught  until  1307.  Among  the  scholars 
from  Oxford  who  attended  his  lectures  was  John  Canon  {fi. 
1329),  a  commentator  on  Peter  Lombard,  and  on  Aristotle's 
Physics.  Duns  Scotus  died  in  1308,  at  Cologne,  where  his 
tomb  in  the  Franciscan  church  bears  the  inscription — Scotia 
me  genuit,  Anglia  me  suscepit,  Gallia  me  dociiit,  Colonia  me  tenet. 

The  works  ascribed  to  his  pen  fill  twelve  folio  volumes  in  the 
edition  printed  at  Lyons  in  1639.  At  Oxford,  Paris  and  Cologne 
he  constantly  opposed  the  teaching  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  thus 
founding  the  philosophical  and  theological  school  of  the  Scot- 
ists.  But  he  was  stronger  in  the  criticism  of  the  opinions  of 
others  than  in  the  constiniction  of  a  system  of  his  own.  While 
the  aim  of  Aquinas  is  to  bring  faith  into  harmony  with  reason. 
Duns  Scotus  has  less  confidence  in  the  power  of  reason;  he 
accordingly  enlarges  the  number  of  doctrines  already  recog- 
nised as  capable  of  being  apprehended  by  faith  alone.  In  phi- 
losophy, his  devotion  to  Aristotle  is  less  exclusive  than  that  of 
Aquinas,  and  he  adopts  many  Platonic  and  Neo- Platonic  con- 
ceptions. "All  created  things  [he  holds]  have,  besides  their 
form,  some  species  of  matter.  Not  matter,  but  form,  is  the 
individualising  principle;  the  generic  and  specific  characters 
are  modified  by  the  individual  peculiarity,"  by  the  haecceitas,  or 
"  thisness,"  of  the  thing.  "  The  universal  essence  is  distinct  .  .  . 
from  the  individual  peculiarity,"  but  does  not  exist  apart  from 
it.  With  the  great  Dominicans  Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  Franciscan  Duns  Scotus  "agrees  in  assuming  a 
threefold  existence  of  the  universal:  it  is  before  all  things,  as 
form  in  the  divine  mind ;  in  things,  as  their  essence  (quidditas) ; 
and  after  things,  as  the  concept  formed  by  mental  abstrac- 
tion," He  claims  for  the  individual  a  real  existence,  and  he  ac- 
cordingly condemns  nominalism.  ^ 

But,  even  in  the  ranks  of  the  realists,  the  extravagant 
realism  of  Duns  Scotus  was  followed  by  a  reaction,  led  by 

»  Little,  loc.  cit.  219  f. 

2  Ueberweg,  History  of  Philosophy,  E.  T.  i,  453  f. 


fc 


Thomas  Aquinas  235 

Wyclif,  who  (for  England  at  least)  is  at  once  "the  last  of  the 
schoolmen"  and  "the  first  of  the  reformers."  Later  reform- 
ers, such  as  Tyndale  (1530),  were  joined  by  the  humanists 
in  opposing  the  subtleties  of  Scotus.  The  influence  of  scho- 
lasticism in  England  ended  with  1535,  when  the  idol  of  the 
schools  was  dragged  from  his  pedestal  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, and  when  one  of  Thomas  Cromwell's  commissioners 
wrote  to  his  master  from  Oxford : 

We  have  set  Dunce  in  Bocardo,  and  have  utterly  banished  him 
Oxford  for  ever,  with  all  his  blynd  glosses.  .  .  .  (At  New  College) 
wee  fownde  all  the  great  Quadrant  Court  full  of  the  leaves  of  Dunce, 
the  wind  blowing  them  into  every  corner.^ 

The  teaching  of  Thomas  Aquinas  was  opposed,  not  only  by 
the  Franciscan  realist  Duns  Scotus,  but  also  by  another  Fran- 
ciscan, the  great  nominalist,  William  of  Ockham.  Born  {c. 
1280)  in  the  little  village  of  that  name  in  Surrey,  he  became  a 
B.D.  of  Oxford,  and  incepted  as  D.D  in  Paris,  where  he  had  a 
strong  influence  over  the  opponent  of  the  papacy,  Marsiglio  of 
Padua.  He  was  probably  present  at  the  chapter  of  Perugia 
(1322),  and  he  certainly  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  struggle 
against  pope  John  XXII.  He  was  imprisoned  at  Avignon 
for  seventeen  weeks  in  1327,  but  escaped  to  Italy  and  joined 
the  emperor,  Lewis  of  Bavaria,  in  1328,  accompanying  him  in 
1330  to  Bavaria,  where  he  stayed  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
remainder  of  his  life,  as  an  inmate  of  the  Franciscan  convent 
at  Munich  (d.  1349).  He  was  known  to  fame  as  the  Invincible 
Doctor. 

The  philosophical  and  theological  writings  of  his  earlier 
career  included  commentaries  on  the  logical  treatises  of  Aris- 
totle and  Porphyry,  a  treatise  on  logic  (the  Caius  College  MS. 
of  which  concludes  with  a  rude  portrait  of  the  author) ,  as  well 
as  Qiiaestiones  on  the  Physics  of  Aristotle  and  on  the  Sentences 
of  Peter  Lombard ;  the  first  book  of  his  questions  on  the  latter 
having  been  probably  completed  before  he  left  Oxford.  In 
the  edition  of  1495  his  work  on  the  Sentences  is  followed  by 
his  Centilogium  theologicum.  The  political  writings  of  the  last 
eighteen  years  of  his  life  include  the  Opiis  nonaginta  dierum 
{c.  1330-3),  and  the  Dialogue  between  the  master  and  the  disciple 
on  the  power  of  the  emperor  and  the  pope  (1333-43). 

»Layton  in  Strype's  Ecclesiastical  Memorials,  Bk.  i,  ch.  xxix,  sub  finem. 


236  Scholars  of  Oxford 

The  philosophical  school  which  he  founded  is  nearly  in- 
different to  the  doctrines  of  the  church,  but  does  not  deny  the 
church's  authority.  While  Scotus  had  reduced  the  number  of 
doctrines  demonstrable  by  pure  reason,  Ockham  declared  that 
such  doctrines  only  existed  as  articles  of  faith.  He  opposes  the 
real  existence  of  universals,  founding  his  negation  of  realism 
on  his  favourite  principle  that  "entities  must  not  be  unneces- 
sarily multiplied."  Realism,  which  had  been  shaken,  more 
than  two  centuries  before,  by  Roscellinus,  was,  to  all  appear- 
ance, shattered  by  William  of  Ockham,  who  is  the  last  of  the 
great  schoolmen. 

An  intermediate  position  between  the  realism  of  Duns 
Scotus  and  the  nominalism  of  William  of  Ockham  w^as  assumed 
by  a  pupil  of  the  former  and  a  fellow-student  of  the  latter 
named  Walter  Burleigh,  who  studied  at  Paris  and  taught  at 
Oxford.  He  was  the  first  in  modern  times  who  attempted  to 
write  a  history  of  ancient  philosophy.  He  knew  no  Greek, 
but  he,  nevertheless,  wrote  130  treatises  on  Aristotle  alone, 
dedicating  his  commentary  on  the  Ethics  and  Politics  to  Rich- 
ard of  Bury. 

Among  the  opponents  of  the  mendicant  orders  at  Oxford, 
about  132 1,  was  a  scholar  of  Paris  and  Oxford  and  a  precursor 
of  Wyclif,  named  John  Baconthorpe  (d.  1346),  a  man  of  ex- 
ceedingly diminutive  stature,  who  is  known  as  the  Resolute 
Doctor,  and  as  the  great  glory  of  the  CaiTnelites.  A  volumi- 
nous writer  of  theological  and  scholastic  treatises  (including 
commentaries  on  Aristotle) ,  he  was  long  regarded  as  the  prince 
of  the  Averroists,  and  nearly  three  centuries  after  his  death 
his  works  were  still  studied  in  Padua. 

Scholasticism  survived  in  the  person  of  Thomas  Brad  war- 
dine,  who  was  consecrated  archbishop  of  Canterbury  shortly 
before  his  death  in  1349.  Educated  at  Merton  College,  Oxford, 
he  expanded  his  college  lectures  on  theology  into  a  treatise 
that  gained  him  the  title  of  Doctor  profundus.  He  is  respect- 
fully mentioned  by  Chaucer  in  company  with  St.  Augustine 
and  Boethius: 

But  I  ne  can  not  bulte  it  to  the  bren. 
As  can  the  holy  doctour  Augustyn, 
Or  Boece,  or  the  bishop  of  Bradwardyn.^ 
'  Canterbury  Tales,  15,  248. 


Richard  of  Bury  237 

In  the  favourable  opinion  of  his  editor,  Sir  Henry  Savile  (1618), 
he  derived  his  philosophy  from  Aristotle  and  Plato.  His  pages 
abound  with  quotations  from  Seneca,  Ptolemy,  Boethius  and 
Cassiodorus ;  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  all  his  learning 
was  gleaned  from  the  library  of  his  friend  Richard  of  Bury,  to 
whom  he  was  chaplain  in  1335. 

Richard  of  Bury  was  the  son  of  Sir  Richard  Aungerville. 
Born  wathin  sight  of  the  Benedictine  abbey  of  Bury  St.  Ed- 
munds, he  is  sometimes  said  to  have  subsequently  entered  the 
Benedictine  convent  at  Durham.  In  the  meantime,  he  had 
certainly  distinguished  himself  in  philosophy  and  theology  at 
Oxford.  From  his  academic  studies  he  was  called  to  be  the 
tutor  to  prince  Edward,  the  future  king  Edward  III.  The 
literary  interests  with  which  he  inspired  the  prince  may  well 
have  led  to  Edward's  patronage  of  Chaucer  and  of  Froissart. 
In  1330  and  1333,  he  was  sent  as  envoy  to  the  pope  at  Avignon; 
and  it  was  in  recognition  of  these  diplomatic  sendees  that  he 
was  made  dean  of  Wells,  and  bishop  of  Durham. 

He  lives  in  literature  as  the  author  of  the  Philohihlon, 
which  was  completed  on  his  58th  birthday,  24  January,  1345  ; 
and,  in  the  same  year,  on  14  April,  at  his  manor  of  Auckland, 
Dominus  Ricardus  de  Bury  migravit  ad  Dominmn.  In  seven 
of  the  thirty-five  manuscripts  of  the  Philohihlon  it  is  ascribed 
to  Robert  Holkot,  the  Dominican  (d.  1349).  But  the  evidence 
is  inconclusive  and  the  style  of  Holkot's  Moralitates  is  different 
from  that  of  the  Philohihlon.  Holkot,  who  was  one  of  the 
bishop's  chaplains,  may  well  have  acted  as  his  amanuensis 
during  the  last  year  of  his  life,  and  have  thus  been  wrongly 
credited  with  having  "composed"  or  "compiled"  the  work. 
The  distinctly  autobiographical  character  of  the  volume  is  in 
favour  of  its  having  been  written  by  Richard  of  Bury  himself. 

The  author  of  the  Philohihlon  is  more  of  a  hihliophile  than  a 
scholar.  He  has  only  the  slightest  knowledge  of  Greek;  but 
he  is  fully  conscious  of  the  debt  of  the  language  of  Rome  to  that 
of  Greece,  and  he  longs  to  remedy  the  prevailing  ignorance  by 
supplying  students  with  grammars  of  Greek  as  well  as  Hebrew. 
His  library  is  not  limited  to  works  on  theology ;  he  places  liberal 
studies  above  the  study  of  law,  and  sanctions  the  reading  of  the 
poets.  His  love  of  letters  breathes  in  every  page  of  his  works. 
He  prefers  manuscripts  to  money,  and  even  "slender  pam- 


238  Scholars  of  Oxford 

phlets  1  to  pampered  palfreys."  He  confesses  with  a  channing 
candour:  "We  are  reported  to  burn  with  such  a  desire  for 
books,  and  especially  old  ones,  that  it  was  more  easy  for  any 
man  to  gain  our  favour  by  means  of  books  than  by  means  of 
money  ";  but  "justice,"  he  hastens  to  assure  us,  "suffered  no 
detriment."  2  In  inditing  this  passage,  he  doubtless  remem- 
bered that  an  abbot  of  St.  Albans^  once  ingratiated  himself 
with  the  future  bishop  of  Durham  by  presenting  him  with 
four  volumes  from  the  abbey  library,  besides  selling  him  thirty 
volumes  from  the  same  collection,  including  a  large  folio  MS. 
of  the  works  of  John  of  Salisbury,  which  is  now  in  the  British 
Museum. 

In  the  old  monastic  libraries,  Richard  of  Bury,  like  Boccaccio 
at  Monte  Cassino,  not  unf  requently  lighted  on  manuscripts  lying 
in  a  wretched  state  of  neglect,  murium  foetihus  cooperti  et  ver- 
mium  morsihus  terebrati.  ^  But  in  those  of  the  new  mendicant 
orders  he  often  "found  heaped  up,  amid  the  utmost  poverty, 
the  utmost  riches  of  wisdom."  ^  He  looks  back  with  regret  on 
the  ages  when  the  monks  used  to  copy  manuscripts  "between 
the  hours  of  prayer."^  He  also  presents  us  with  a  vivid  pic- 
ture of  his  own  eagerness  in  collecting  books  with  the  aid  of  the 
stationarii  and  lihrarii  of  France,  Germany  and  Italy.  For  some 
of  his  purchases  he  sends  to  Rome,  while  he  dwells  with  rapture 
on  his  visits  to  Paris,  "the  paradise  of  the  world,"  "where  the 
days  seemed  ever  few  for  the  greatness  of  our  love.  There  are 
the  delightful  libraries,  more  aromatic  than  stores  of  spicery; 
there,  the  verdant  pleasure-gardens  of  all  varieties  of  volumes."  -^ 
He  adds  that,  in  his  own  manors,  he  always  employed  a  large 
number  of  copyists,  as  well  as  binders  and  illuminators  ^ ;  and 
he  pays  an  eloquent  tribute  to  his  beloved  books : 

Truth,  that  triumphs  over  all  things,  seems  to  endure  more 
usefully,  and  to  fructify  with  greater  profit  in  books.  The  meaning 
of  the  voice  perishes  with  the  sound ;  truth  latent  in  the  mind  is  only 
a  hidden  wisdom,  a  buried  treasure;  but  truth  that  shines  forth 
from  books  is  eager  to  manifest  itself  to  all  our  senses.  It  com- 
mends itself  to  the  sight,  when  it  is  read ;  to  the  hearing  when  it  is 
heard;  and  even  to  the  touch,  when  it  suffers    itself  to  be  trans- 

'  §123  (the  earliest  known  example  of  the  word),  panfletos  exiguos. 
2  §§119,  122.  3  Gesta  Abbatum,  11,  200.  ■>  §120. 

5  §135-  '  §74-  '  §126.  8  §143. 


Richard  of  Bury  239 

cribed,  bound,  corrected,  and  preserved.  .  .  .  What  pleasantness 
of  teaching  there  is  in  books,  how  easy,  how  secret.  How  safely 
and  how  frankly  do  we  disclose  to  books  our  human  poverty  of 
mind .  They  are  masters  who  instruct  us  without  rod  or  ferule.  .  .  . 
If  you  approach  them,  they  are  not  asleep;  if  you  inquire  of  them, 
they  do  not  withdraw  themselves;  they  never  chide,  when  you 
make  mistakes ;  they  never  laugh,  if  you  are  ignorant.^ 

Towards  the  close,  he  confides  to  us  the  fact  that  he  had 
"long  cherished  the  fixed  resolve  of  founding  in  perpetual 
charity  a  hall  in  the  revered  university  of  Oxford,  the  chief 
nursing-mother  of  all  liberal  arts,  and  of  endowing  it  with  the 
necessary  revenues  for  the  maintenance  of  a  number  of  scholars, 
and,  moreover,  to  furnish  the  hall  with  the  treasures  of  our 
books."  2  He  gives  rules  for  the  management  of  the  library, 
rules  founded  m  part  on  those  adopted  in  Paris  for  the  library 
of  the  Sorbonne.  He  contemplated  the  permanent  endowment 
of  the  Benedictine  house  of  Durham  College  in  the  university 
of  Oxford,  and  bequeathed  to  that  college  the  precious  volumes 
he  had  collected  at  Bishop  Auckland.  The  ancient  monastic 
house  was  dissolved,  and  Trinity  College  rose  on  its  ruins ;  but 
the  library  built  to  contain  the  bishop's  books  still  remains, 
though  the  books  are  lost,  and  even  the  catalogue  has  vanished. 
His  tomb  in  Durham  cathedral,  marked  by  "a  faire  marble 
stone,  whereon  his  owne  ymage  was  most  curiously  and  artifi- 
cially ingraven  in  brass 3"  has  been,  unfortunately,  destroyed; 
but  he  lives  in  literature  as  the  author  of  the  Philohihlon,  his  sole 
surviving  memorial.  One,  w^ho  was  inspired  with  the  same 
love  of  books,  has  justly  said  of  the  author — "  His  fame  will 
never  die."* 

Like  the  early  humanists  of  Italy,  he  was  one  of  the  new 
literary  fraternity  of  Europe — men  who  foresaw  the  possibilities 
of  learning,  and  were  eager  to  encourage  it.  On  the  first  of  his 
missions  to  the  pope  at  Avignon  he  had  met  Petrarch,  who 
describes  him  as  vir  ardentis  ingenii,  nee  litterarwm  inscius; 
he  adds  that  he  had  absolutely  failed  to  interest  the  English- 
man in  determining  the  site  of  the  ancient  Thule.s  But  they 
were  kindred  spirits  at  heart.     For,  in  the  same  vein  as  Richard 

i§§  23,  26.  2  §232. 

^Description  of  Monutnents  (1593),  Surtees  Society,  p.  2. 
*  Dibdin's  Reminiscences,  1,  86  n.  ^  Epp.  Fam.,    iii,  i. 


240  Scholars  of  Oxford 

of  Bury,  Petrarch  tells  his  brother,  that  he  "cannot  be  sated 
with  books";  that,  in  comparison  with  books,  even  gold  and 
silver,  gems  and  purple,  marble  halls  and  richly  caparisoned 
steeds,  only  afford  a  superficial  delight;  and,  finally,  he  urges 
that  brother  to  find  trusty  men  to  search  for  manuscripts  in 
Italy,  even  as  he  himself  had  sent  like  messages  to  his  friends 
in  Spain  and  France  and  England.  1 

In  the  course  of  this  brief  survey,  we  have  noticed,  during 
the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  revival  of  intellectual 
interests  in  the  age  of  Abelard,  which  resulted  in  the  birth  of 
the  university  of  Paris.  We  have  watched  the  first  faint  traces 
of  the  spirit  of  humanism  in  the  days  when  John  of  Salisbury 
was  studying  Latin  literature  in  the  classic  calm  of  Chartres. 
Two  centuries  later,  Richard  of  Bury  marks  for  England  the 
time  of  transition  between  the  scholastic  era  and  the  revival  of 
learning.  The  Oxford  of  his  day  was  still  the  "beautiful  city, 
spreading  her  gardens  to  the  moonlight,  and  whispering  from 
her  towers  the  last  enchantments  of  the  Middle  Age."  "  Then 
flash'd  a  yellow  gleam  across  the  world."  Few,  if  any,  in  our 
western  islands  thought  to  themselves,  "  the  sun  is  rising"; 
though  in  another  land,  the  land  of  Petrarch,  moonlight  had 
already  faded  away — "the  sun  had  risen." 

>  Epp.  Fam.,  in,  18. 


I 


CHAPTER  XI 

Early  Transition  English 

THE  description  which  suggests  itself  for  the  century  from 
1150  to  1250,  so  far  as  native  hterature  is  concerned, 
is  that  of  the  Early  Transition  period.  It  marks  the 
first  great  advance  from  the  old  to  the  new,  though  another 
period  of  progress  was  necessary  to  bring  about  in  its  fulness 
the  dawn  of  literary  English.  The  changes  of  the  period  were 
many  and  far-reachmg.  In  politics  and  social  affairs  we  see  a 
gradual  welding  together  of  the  various  elements  of  the  nation, 
accompanied  by  a  slow  evolution  of  the  idea  of  individual 
liberty.  In  linguistic  matters  w^e  find  not  only  profit  and  loss 
in  details  of  the  vocabulary,  together  with  the  innovation  in 
the  direction  of  a  simpler  syntax,  but  also  a  modification  of 
actual  pronunciation — the  effect  of  the  work  of  two  centuries 
on  Old  English  speech-sounds.  In  scribal  methods,  again,  a 
transition  is  visible.  Manuscripts  were  no  longer  written  in 
the  Celtic  characters  of  pre-Conquest  times,  but  in  the  modifica- 
tion of  the  Latin  alphabet  practised  by  French  scribes.  And 
these  changes  find  their  counterpart  in  literary  history,  in 
changes  of  material,  changes  of  form,  changes  of  Hterary 
temper.  Anselm  and  his  school  had  displayed  to  English 
writers  a  new  realm  of  theological  writings;  Anglo-Norman 
secular  litterateurs  had  further  enlarged  the  field  for  literary 
adventurers;  and,  since  the  tentative  efforts  resulting  from 
these  innovations  took,  for  the  most  part,  the  form  of  their 
models,  radical  changes  in  verse-form  soon  became  palpable. 
The  literary  temper  began  to  betray  signs  of  a  desire  for  freedom. 
Earlier  limitations  were  no  longer  capable  of  satisfying  the 
new  impulses.  Legend  and  romance  led  on  the  imagination; 
the  motives  of  love  and  mysticism  began  lightly  touching  the 
literary  work  of  the  time  to  finer  issues;    and  such  was  the 

VOL.  I.  — 16  241 


242  Early  Transition  English 

advance  m  artistic  ideals,  especially  during  the  latter  part  of 
the  period,  that  it  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  a  fresh  illustration 
of  the  saying  of  Ruskin  that  "  the  root  of  all  art  is  struck  in 
the  thirteenth  century." 

The  first  half  of  the  period  (i  150-1200)  may  be  roughly 
described  as  a  stage  of  timid  experiment,  the  second  half  (1200- 
1250)  as  one  of  experiment  still,  but  of  a  bolder  and  less  uncer- 
tain kind.  But,  before  dealing  with  such  literary  material  as 
survives,  a  word  may  be  said  as  to  the  submerged  section  of 
popular  poetry.  It  is  true  that  little  can  be  said  definitely 
concerning  this  popular  verse,  though  Layamon  refers  to  the 
making  of  folk-songs,  and  both  William  of  Malmesbury  and 
Henry  of  Huntingdon  mention  some  with  which  their  age  was 
familiar.  The  ancient  epic  material  must  certainly,  however, 
have  lived  on.  Such  things  as  the  legends  of  Weland  and  Off  a, 
the  story  of  Wade  and  his  boat  Guingelot,  must  long  have 
been  cherished  by  the  people  at  large.  This  period  was  also  the 
seed-time  of  some  of  the  later  Middle  English  sagas.  The 
stories,  of  Horn  and  Havelok  were  silently  changing  their 
Danish  colouring  and  drawing  new  life  from  English  soil.  The 
traditions  of  Guy  of  Warwick  and  Bevis  of  Hampton  were 
x>^  becoming  something  more  than  local;  the  ancient  figure  of 

Woden  was  being  slowly  metamorphosed  into  the  attractive 
Robin  Hood.  It  was,  in  short,  the  rough-hewing  stage  of 
later  monuments. 

With  regard  to  the  actual  literary  remains  of  the  earlier 
period,  a  rough  division  may  be  made  on  the  basis  of  the  main 
influences,  native  and  foreign,  visible  in  those  works.  The 
Here  Prophecy^  (c.  1190)  scarcely  falls  within  the  range  of  a 
literary  survey,  though  it  is  interesting  from  both  linguistic 
and  historical  standpoints.  Among  those  works  primarily 
reminiscent  of  earlier  times  the  Old  English  Homilies  are  natur- 
ally prominent.  Some  of  them  are  merely  twelfth  century 
transcriptions  of  the  work  of  Aelfric;^  in  others  foreign  influ- 
ences are  seen.  But  even  then  the  mould  into  which  the  ma- 
terial is  run  is  the  same.     The  earlier  method  of  conveying 

'  See  Hales,  Folia  Liitcraria,  pp.  55-61;  H.  Morley,  English  Writers,  iii, 
200-1. 

2  See  Morris,  Old  English  Homilies  (preface  passim)  for  statements  regard- 
ing the  origin  of  De  Initio  Creaturce,  the  homily  for  the  4th  Sunday  after 
Pentecost,  and  the  homily  for  the  5th  Sunday  in  Lent. 


The  ' '  Proverbs  of  Alfred  "  243 

religious  instruction  to  English  parishioners  by  means  of  the 
homily  is  still  retained.  The  Proverbs  of  Alfred  are  also  strongly 
reminiscent  of  earlier  native  tradition  embodied,  not  only  in  the 
Old  English  Gnomic  Verses,  but  also  in  the  proverb  dialogues 
of  Salomon  and  Marcolf,  Adrianus  and  Ritheus,  and  in  the 
sententious  utterances  in  which  Old  English  writers  so  fre- 
quently indulged.  This  Middle  English  collection  of  proverbs 
is  preserved  in  three  MSS.  of  the  thirteenth  century;  but 
these  versions  are  obviously  recensions  of  an  earlier  form, 
dating  from  the  second  half  of  the  preceding  century.  The 
actual  connection  of  the  proverbs  with  Alfred  himself  must  be 
accepted  with  some  reserve.  His  fame  as  a  proverb-maker  is 
implied  in  the  later  Owl  and  Nightingale  and  is  even  more  ex- 
plicitly maintained  elsewhere ;  Elitredus  in  proverhiis  ita  enituit 
ut  nemo  post  ilium  amplius.^  But  no  collection  of  Alfredian 
proverbs  is  known  to  have  existed  in  Old  English;  and,  since 
some  of  the  sayings  occur  in  the  later  collection  known  by  the 
name  of  Hendyng,  it  may  well  have  been  that  the  use  of  the 
West  Saxon  king's  name  in  this  collection  was  nothing  more 
than  a  patriotic  device  for  adding  to  popular  sayings  the 
authority  of  a  great  name.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  matter 
of  the  proverbs  is  curiously  mixed.  There  is,  first,  the  shrewd 
philosophy  of  popular  origin.  Then  there  are  religious  ele- 
ments: Christ's  will  is  to  be  followed;  the  soldier  must  fight 
that  the  church  may  have  rest;  while  monastic  scorn  possibly 
lurks  in  the  sections  which  deal  with  woman  and  marriage. 
And,  thirdly,  there  are  utterances  similar  to  those  in  Old  Eng- 
lish didactic  works  like  A  Father's  Instruction,  w^here  definite 
precepts  as  to  conduct  are  laid  down. 2  The  metrical  form  of 
the  Proverbs  is  no  less  interesting.  The  verse  is  of  the  earlier 
alliterative  type,  but  it  shows  precisely  the  same  symptoms 
of  change  as  that  of  certain  tenth  and  eleventh  century  poems. ^  ,  , 
The  caesura  is  preserved,  but  the  long  line  is  broken  in  two. 
The  laws  of  purely  alliterative  verse  were  no  longer  followed ;  an 
attempt  is  rather  made  to  place  words  in  the  order  of  thought. 
There  are  occasional  appearances  of  the  leonine  rime  and  asso- 

1  Ann.  Min.  Winton,  Anglia  Sacra,  i,  289. 

2  e.g.  "If  thou  dost  harbour  sorrow,  let  not  thine  arrow  know  it;   whisper 
it  but  to  thy  saddle-bow,  and  ride  abroad  with  song." 

3  Cf.  O.  E.  Chronicle,  975,  1036. 


244  Early  Transition  English 

nance,  characteristic  of  tenth  and  eleventh  century  work;  but, 
at  best,  the  structure  is  irregular.  In  section  xxii.  an  attempt 
has  apparently  been  made — possibly  by  a  later  scribe — to 
smooth  out  irregularities  and  to  approximate  the  short  couplet 
in  rime  and  rhythm.  The  reforming  hand  of  the  adapter,  as 
in  other  Middle  English  poems,  is  also  seen  elsewhere;  but, 
these  details  apart,  the  work  belongs  entirely  in  both  form  and 
spirit  to  the  earlier  period. 

Alongside  these  survivals  of  an  earlier  day  there  were  not 
wanting  signs  of  a  new  regime.  In  the  Canute  Song  {c.  1167), 
for  instance,  can  be  seen  the  popular  verse  striving  in  the  direc- 
tion of  foreign  style.  The  song  is  of  rude  workmanship,  but 
the  effect  aimed  at  is  not  an  alliterative  one.  Rime  and  asso- 
nance are  present,  and  the  line,  as  compared  with  earlier  exam- 
ples, will  be  seen  to  reveal  definite  attempts  at  hammering  out 
a  regular  rhythm.  In  the  Cantus  Beati  Godrici  (before  11 70) 
is  visible  a  similar  groping  after  the  new  style.  The  matter 
dealt  with  is  interesting  as  anticipating,  in  some  sort,  the  Vir- 
gin cult  of  the  early  thirteenth  century.  The  writer,  Godric, 
was  an  Englishman  who,  first  a  merchant,  became  subsequently 
a  recluse  connected  with  Carlisle,  and  latterly  with  Durham. 
Three  small  fragmentary  poems  have  been  handed  down  con- 
nected with  his  name,  one  of  them,  it  is  alleged,  having  been 
committed  to  him  by  the  Virgin  Mary  as  he  knelt  before  th^ 
altar.  The  fragment  beginning  Sainte  Marie  Virgine  is  the  best 
of  the  three.  The  rhythm,  the  rimes  and,  also,  the  strophic 
form  were  clearly  suggested  by  Latin  verse,  but  the  diction  is 
almost  entirely  of  native  origin.  In  Paternoster,  a  work  which 
appeared  about  the  same  date,  or  later,  in  the  south,  may  be 
seen  a  definite  advance  in  carrying  out  the  new  artistic  notions. 
It  is  a  poem  of  some  300  lines,  embodying  a  lengthy  paraphrase 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  each  sentence  of  the  prayer  affording  a 
text  for  homiletic  treatment.  The  work  is  notable  as  being 
the  earliest  example  of  the  consistent  use  of  the  short  riming 
couplet  in  English.  The  underlying  influence  is  clearly  that  of 
some  French  or  Latin  model.  The  diction  is  native,  but  it  is 
used  with  Latin  simplicity ;  the  lack  of  verbal  ornament  marks 
a  striking  departure  from  the  earlier  English  manner. 

By  far  the  most  important  and  interesting  w^ork  of  this 
period,  however,  is  the  Poema  Morale.     It  is  interesting  in 


h 


u 


"  Poema  Morale  "  245 

itself,  interesting  also  in  the  influence  it  exercised  upon  later 
writers,  and  its  popularity  is  fairly  established  by  the  seven 
MSS.  which  survive,  though  it  might  also  be  added  that  the 
most  recently  discovered  of  these  copies,^  being,  apparently, 
due  to  a  different  original  from  that  of  the  others,  affords 
additional  proof  that  the  work  was  widely  known.  The  writer 
opens  his  sermon-poem  in  a  subjective  vein.  He  laments  his 
years,  his  ill-spent  life,  and  exhorts  his  readers  to  pass  their  Z^> 
days  wisely.  He  alludes  to  the  terrors  of  the  last  judgment. 
Hell  is  depicted  in  all  the  colours  of  the  medieval  fancy,  and  the 
joys  of  Heaven  are  touched  with  corresponding  charm.  And 
so  the  reader  is  alternately  intimidated  and  allured  into  keeping 
the  narrow  way.  All  this,  of  course,  is  well-worn  material. 
The  Old  English  work  Be  Domes  Daege  had  handled  a  similar 
theme.  The  ten'ors  and  glories  of  the  hereafter  had  inspired 
many  earlier  English  pens,  and  the  poet,  in  fact,  specifically 
states  that  part  of  his  descriptions  were  drawn  from  books  (cf . 
1.  224).  But  his  treatment  of  the  subject  has  much  that  is  new." 
It  shows  real  feeling,  though  there  are  also  the  usual  convention- 
alities ;  the  poem  contains  ripe  wisdom  and  sage  advice.  If  the 
description  of  Hell  is  characteristically  material,  Heaven, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  spiritually  conceived.  The  verse-form  is 
also  interesting.  Here,  for  the  first  time  in  English,  is  found 
the  fourteener  line,  the  catalectic  tetrameter  of  Latin  poets. 
The  iambic  movement  of  that  line  is  adapted  with  wonderful 
facility  to  the  native  word-form,  accent-displacement  is  not  ab- 
normally frequent  and  the  lines  run  in  couplets  linked  by 
end-rime.  The  old  heroic  utterance  is  exchanged  for  the  paler 
abstractions  of  the  Latin  schools,  and  the  loss  of  colour  is 
heightened  by  the  absence  of  metaphor  with  its  suggestion  of 
energy.  A  corresponding  gain  is,  however,  derived  from  the 
more  natural  order  of  words;  and,  in  general,  the  merits  of  the 
poem  are  perhaps  best  recognised  by  comparing  its  workman- 
ship with  that  of  the  songs  of  Godric  and  by  noting  the  advances 
made  upon  Old  English  forms  in  the  direction  of  later  verse. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  presence  of  foreign 
influences  in  certain  of  the  twelfth  century  Homilies.  Corre- 
spondences with  the  homiletic  work  of  Radulfus  Ardens  of  Ac- 

'Anna  C.  Paues,  A  newly  discovered  Manuscript  of  the  Poema  Morale, 
Anglia,  xxx  (xviii),  pp.  217-38. 


246  Early  Transition  English 

quitaine  (c.  1 100)  and  of  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  (i 090-1 153)  point 
to  the  employment  of  late  Latin  originals.  Certain  quotations 
in  these  Homilies  are  also  taken  from  Horace  and  Ovid — an 
exceptional  proceeding  in  Old  English  works,  though  common 
in  writings  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  ^ ;  and  thus  the 
inference  is  clear  that  here  Aelfric  is  not  the  sole  or  even  the 
main  influence,  but  that  this  is  rather  supplied  by  those  French 
writers  whose  religious  works  became  known  in  England  after 
the  Conquest.  The  influence  of  the  same  Norman  school  of 
theology  is,  moreover,  visible  in  the  Old  Kentish  Sermons  (i  150- 
1200).  They  are,  in  reality,  translations  of  French  texts,  and 
signs  of  this  origin  are  preserved  in  the  diction  employed,  in  the 
use  of  such  words  as  apierede,  cuuenable  and  others. 

The  latter  half  of  the  twelfth  century  was  a  period  of  ex- 
periment and  of  conflicting  elements.  It  was  a  stage  neces- 
sarily unproductive,  but  of  great  importance  notwithstanding, 
in  the  work  of  development.  Older  native  traditions  lived  on ; 
but  access  had  been  obtained  to  continental  learning,  and, 
while  themes  were  being  borrowed  from  Norman  writers,  as  a 
consequence  of  study  of  other  French  works,  the  riming  couplet 
J  and  the  septenarius  had  by  this  time  been  adopted,  and  an  alien 

system  of  versification  based  on  the  regular  recurrence  of  accent 
seemed  in  a  fair  way  of  being  assimilated.  With  the  attainment 
of  a  certain  amount  of  proficiency  in  the  technique  of  the  new 
style,  the  embargo  on  literary  effort  was,  in  some  degree, 
removed,  and  the  literature  for  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century  forthwith  responded  to  contemporary  influences. 
The  age  became  once  more  articulate,  and  the  four  chief  works 
of  the  time  are  eloquent  witnesses  of  the  impulses  which  were 
'  abroad.     The  Ormulum  is  representative  of  purely  religious 

■  ^  tradition,  while  the  Ancren  Riwle  points  to  an  increased  interest 
in  the  religious  life  of  women,  and  also,  in  part,  to  new  mystical 
■^  tendencies.  Layamon's  Brut,  with  its  hoard  of  legendary 
fancy,  is  clearly  the  outcome  of  an  impules  fresh  to  English 
/  soil;  while  The  Owl  and  Nightingale  is  the  herald  of  the  love- 
theme  in  England. 

It  must  be  conceded,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  general 
literary  tone  of  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century  was  deter- 

>  Vollhardt,  Einfiuss  der  lat.  geistlichen  Lift,  auf  einige  kleinere  Schopfungen 
der  engl.  Uebergangsperiode,  pp.  6-18. 


Literary  Revolt  of  the  Thirteenth  Century  247 

mined  by  the  prevailing  power  of  the  church  and  the  monastery. 
The  intellectual  atmosphere  of  England  was  mainly  cleric, 
as  opposed  to  the  laic  independence  which  existed  across  the 
Channel;  and  this  difference  is  suggested  by  the  respective 
traits  of  contemporary  Gothic  architecture  in  England  and 
in  France.  From  the  eleventh  to  the  thirteenth  centuries  the 
power  of  the  pope,  so  far  as  western  Europe  was  concerned,  was 
at  its  height.  National  enthusiasms  aroused  by  the  crusades 
played  unconsciously  into  the  papal  hands,  and,  during  this 
time,  more  than  one  pope  deposed  a  ruling  monarch  and  then 
disposed  of  his  dominions.  Theology  was  the  main  study  at 
the  newly  founded  universities  of  Paris  and  Oxford;  it  domi- 
nated all  learning.  And,  whereas  the  church,  generally,  had 
attained  the  zenith  of  its  power,  its  influence  in  England  was 
visible  in  the  strong  personalities  of  Lanfranc  and  Anselm, 
while  the  religious  revival  under  Henry  I  and  the  coming  of 
the  friars  at  a  later  date  were  ample  evidence  of  the  spirit  of 
devotion  which  was  abroad. 

But  literature  was  not  destined  to  remain  a  religious  mono- 
tone :  other  and  subtler  influences  were  to  modify  its  character. 
The  twelfth  century  renascence  was  a  period  of  popular  awak- 
ening and  the  vigorous  young  nations  found  scope  for  their 
activities  in  attempting  to  cast  off  the  fetters  which  had  bound 
them  in  the  past.  As  the  imperial  power  declined,  individual 
countries  wrested  their  freedom,  and  in  England,  by  12 15,  clear 
ideas  had  been  formulated  as  to  the  rights  of  the  individual  cit- 
izens. This  groping  for  political  freedom  found  its  intellect- 
ual counterpart  in  France,  not  only  in  the  appearance  of  secular 
litterateurs  but  also  in  that  school  of  laic  architects  which  pro- 
ceeded to  modify  French  Gothic  style.  ^  In  England  it  appeared 
in  a  deliberate  tendency  to  reject  the  religious  themes  which 
had  been  all  but  compulsory  and  to  revert  to  that  which  was 
elemental  in  man.  Fancy,  in  the  shape  of  legend,  was  among 
these  ineradicable  elements,  long  despised  by  erudition  and 
condemned  by  religion ;  and  it  was  because  the  Arthurian  legend 
offered  satisfaction  to  some  of  the  inmost  cravings  of  the  human 
heart,  while  it  led  the  way  to  loftier  ideals,  that,  when  revealed, 
it  succeeded  in  colouring  much  of  the  subsequent  literature. 
The  Brut  of  Layamon  is,  therefore,  a  silent  witness  to  a  literary 

'E.  S.  Prior,  History  of  Gothic  Art  i>i  England,  pp.  2 1-2. 


248  Early  Transition  English 

revolt,  in  which  the  claims  of  legend  and  fancy  were  advanced 
anew  for  recognition  in  a  field  where  religion  had  held  the 
monopoly.  And  this  spirit  of  revolt  was  further  reinforced 
by  the  general  assertion  of  another  side  of  elemental  man,  viz. : 
that  connected  with  the  passion  of  love.  France,  in  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries,  had  been  swept  by  a  wave  of  popular 
love-poetry  which  brought  in  its  wake  the  music  of  the  trouba- 
dours. Germany,  in  the  twelfth  century,  produced  the  min- 
nesingers. The  contemporary  poets  of  Italy  were  also  love- 
poets,  and,  at  a  slightly  later  date,  Portugal,  too,  possessed 
many  of  the  kind.  This  general  inspiration,  originating 
in  France,  and  passing  over  the  frontiers  on  the  lips  of  the 
troubadours  (for,  in  each  country,  the  original  form  of  the  pop- 
ular poetry  was  one  and  the  same^),  was  destined  to  touch 
English  soil  soon  after  1200.  Though  it  failed  for  some  time 
to  secularise  English  poetry,  it  imparted  a  note  of  passion  to 
much  of  the  religious  work;  and,  further,  in  The  Owl  and  Night- 
ingale religious  traditions  were  boldly  confronted  with  new- 
bom  ideas,  and  the  case  for  Love  was  established  beyond  all 
dispute. 

The  religious  writings  of  the  time  may  be  divided  into  four 
sections,  according  to  the  aims  which  they  severally  have  in 
view.  The  purport  of  the  first  is  ta  teach  Biblical  history ;  the 
second  to  exhort  to  holier  living;  the  third  is  connected  with 
the  religious  life  of  women ;  the  last  with  the  Virgin  cult  and 
mysticism. 

Of  the  several  attempts  at  scriptural  exposition  the  Ormu- 
lum  is  the  most  considerable.  The  power  of  literary  appeal 
displayed  in  this  work  is,  intrinsically,  of  the  smallest.  Its 
matter  is  not  attractive,  its  movement  is  prodigiously  monot- 
onous, its  very  correctness  is  tiresome';  and  yet  it  has  an  interest 
of  its  own,  for,  in  its  way,  it  helps  to  fill  in  the  details  of  the 
literary  picture  of  the  time.  It  was  probably  written  in  the 
first  decade  of  the  thirteenth  century  in  the  north-east  mid- 
lands. Its  author,  Orm,  was  a  member  of  an  Augustine  mon- 
astery in  that  district,  and,  in  response  to  the  wishes  of  his 
"broferr  Wallterr,"  he  undertook  to  turn  into  EngHsh  para- 
phrases all  the  gospels  for  the  ecclesiastical  year  as  arranged 
in  the  mass-book,  and  to  add  to  each  paraphrase  an  exposition 

'A.  Jeanrqy,  Les  origines  de  la  pocsie  lyriqtie  en  France  an  Moyen-d.ge. 


''Ormulum"  249 

for  English  readers.     The  work,  as  projected,  entailed  a  treat- 
ment of  243  passages  of  Scripture:  the  result,  as  extant,  em- 
bodies only  one-eighth  of  the  plan — thirty  paraphrases  with  the 
corresponding  homilies.     In  his  translation  of  the  scriptural 
text  Orm  faithfully  followed  his  original ;  for  the  matter  of  the 
homiletic  sections  he  drew  mainly  on  the  Commentaries  and 
Homilies  of  Bede,  though,  occasionally,  he  appears  to  have 
consulted  the  homiletic  work  of  Gregory  as  well  as  the  writings 
of  Josephus  and  Isidore.     It  has  been  usual  to  point  to  the 
works  of  Augustine  and  Aelfric  as  among  the  sources;  but 
definite   reasons   have   been   advanced   for   discountenancinof 
this  view.  ^     Traces  of  originality  on  the  part  of  Orm  are  few 
and  far  between.     Encouraged  by  the  spirit  of  his  originals, 
he  occasionally  essays  short  flights  of  fancy;  and  instances  of 
such  ventures  possibly  occur  in  11.  3710,  8019,   9390.     In  a 
work  so  entirely  dependent  on  earlier  material  it  is  not  strange 
to  find  that  the  theology  was  already  out  of  date.     Orm  is 
orthodox;;  but  it  is  the  orthodoxy  of  Bede.     Of  later  develop- 
ments, such  as  the  thirteenth  century  mysticism,  he  has  not  a 
sign.     He  combats  heresies  such  as  the  Ebionite  (1.   18,577) 
and  the  Sabellian  (1.  18,625),  which  had  disturbed  the  days  of 
Bede  but  had  since  been  laid  to  rest.     In  his  introduction  ap- 
pear Augustinian  ideas  concerning  original  sin ;  but  of  the  pro- 
pitiation theory  as  set  forth  by  Anselm  there  is  no  mention. 
His  dogma  and  his  erudition  are  alike  pre-Conquest ;  and  in  this 
sense  Orm  may  be  said  to  stand  outside  his  age  and  to  represent 
merely  a  continuation  of  Old  English  thought.     Again,  he  is 
only  following- the  methods  of  the  earlier  schools  in  his  alle- 
gorical interpretation.     He  is  amazingly  subtle  and  frequently 
puerile  in  the  vast  significance  which  he  gives  to  individual  ' 
words,  even  to  individual  letters.     Personal  names  and  place- 
names  furnish  him  with  texts  for  small  sermons,  and   the  fre- 
quently indulged  desire  to  extract  hidden  meanings  from  the 
most  unpromising  material  leads  to  such  an  accumulation  of 
strained  conceits  as  would   have  made  the  work  a  veritable 
gold  mine  for  seventeenth  century  intellect.     Most  illuminating 
as  to  this  fanciful  treatment  is  his  handling  of  the  name  of  Jesus 
(1.  4302).     Of  the  human  and  personal  element  the  work  con- 
tains but  little.     The  simple  modesty  of  the  author's  nature  is 

>  G.  Sarrazin,  Englische  Stud,  vi,  1-27. 


2^0 


Early  Transition  English 


revealed  when  he  fears  his  limitations  and  his  inadequacy  for 
the  task.  Otherwise  the  passionless  temperament  of  the  monk 
is  felt  in  every  line  as  the  work  ambles  along  innocent  of  all 
poetic  exaltation,  and  given  over  completely  to  pious  moralis- 
ings.  He  shows  a  great  regard  for  scholarly  exactitude;  but 
this,  in  excess,  becomes  mere  pedantry,  and,  indeed,  his  scruples 
often  cause  him  to  linger  needlessly  over  trifles  in  the  text 
and  to  indulge  in  aimless  repetitions  which  prove  exhausting. 
As  a  monument  of  industry  the  work  is  beyond  all  praise. 
Its  peculiar  orthography,  carefully  sustained  through  10,000 
long  lines,  is  the  joy  of  the  philologist,  though  aesthetically  it  is 
open  to  grave  objection.  By  his  method  of  doubling  every 
consonant  immediately  following  a  short  vowel,  Orm  furnishes 
most  valuable  evidence  regarding  vowel-length  at  a  critical 
period  of  the  language.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  was  well 
advised  in  choosing  verse  of  any  kind  as  the  form  of  his  pon- 
derous work;  but  it  must,  at  least,  be  conceded  that  the  verse 
which  he  did  adopt — the  iambic  septenarius — ^was  not  the 
least  suitable  for  the  purpose  he  had  in  view.  It  was  the 
simplest  of  Latin  metres,  and  Orm's  mechanical  handling  cer- 
tainly involves  no  great  complexities.  He  allows  himself  no 
licenses.  The  line  invariably  consists  of  fifteen  syllables  and  is 
devoid  of  either  riming  or  alliterative  ornament.  The  former 
might  possibly,  in  the  author's  opinion,  have  tended  to  detract 
from  the  severity  of  the  theme ;  the  latter  must  have  appeared 
too  vigorous  for  the  tone  desired.  Except  for  his  versification, 
Orm,  as  compared  with  Old  English  writers,  appears  to  have 
forgotten  nothing,  to  have  learnt  nothing.  Equally  blind  to 
the  uses  of  Romance  vocabulary  and  conserv^ative  in  thought, 
Orm  is  but  a  relic  of  the  past  in  an  age  fast  hurrying  on  to  new 
forms  and  new  ideas. 

Other  attempts  at  teaching  Biblical  history  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Genesis  and  Exodus  poems  and  in  the  shorter  poems  called 
The  Passion  of  Our  Lord  and  The  Woman  of  Samaria.  In  the 
Genesis  and  Exodus  poems  may  be  seen  a  renewal  of  the  earlier 
method  of  telling  Bible  stories  in  "londes  speche  and  wordes 
smale."  They  are  probably  by  one  and  the  same  author,  ^ 
who  wrote  about  1250  in  the  south-eastern  Midlands.     Iheir 

>  Fritzche,  Angl.  v,  42-92,  and  Ten  Brink,  History  of  English  Literature, 
vol.  I,  Appendix  F. 


Shorter  Poems  251 

theme  comprises  Israelitish  history  down  to  the  death  of  Moses. 
But  the  poet  did  not  write  from  the  Bibhcal  text;  his  work  is 
founded  almost  wholly  on  the  Historia  Sckolastica  of  Petrus 
Comestor ;  although  the  first  600  lines  appear  to  be  drawn  from 
some  other  source,  while  in  11.  78  ff.  a  reminiscence  of  Philipe 
de  Thaun's  Compiit  is  found.  The  poet's  aim  is  to  tell  a  plain 
story,  and  it  is  the  simple  human  items  upon  which  he  concen- 
centrates.  He  avoids  all  show  of  moralising,  and  consistently 
passes  by  the  quotations  with  which  his  original  was  abun- 
dantly fortified.  In  each,  the  earlier  epic  style  has  given  way 
to  the  more  businesslike  methods  of  the  riming  chronicle,  and 
both  works  are  written  in  a  short  riming  couplet  of  excellent 
workmanship.  They  are  of  considerable  importance  in  the 
history  of  English  prosody,  since  in  them  the  principles  upon 
which  that  prosody  is  based  clearly  emerge.  The  line  is  based 
upon  feet  rather  than  accents,  and  studied  variations  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  feet  produce  melody  of  inconceivable 
variety  in  the  accentual  system  with  its  unlicensed  particles. 
The  other  tw^o  poems  deal  with  New  Testament  history.  The 
Passion  is  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Christ  with  details  added  con- 
cerning the  later  persecutions  under  Nero  and  Domitian.  It  is, 
confessedly,  a  set-off  to  current  narratives  of  Karlemeyne  and 
the  Diizeper.  The  Woman  of  Samaria  deals  with  the  episode 
of  Christ's  meeting  with  the  woman  at  the  well,  and,  as  in  the 
previous  poem,  the  suitable  septenarius  is  employed. 

The  corresponding  section  of  hortatory  writings  is  of  mixed 
character.  It  comprises  both  verse  and  prose,  and  its  eft'ects 
are  produced  in  divers  manners.  Sometimes  it  is  by  satire  in 
which  prevailing  vices  are  specifically  arraigned,  elsewhere  by 
stock  devices  for  terrifying  evil-doers ;  or  again,  the  method  may 
be  the  less  aggressive  one  of  allegorical  teaching.  All  these 
writings  have  but  one  aim,  that  of  inculcating  holier  living. 
Beginning  with  the  satires,  we  have  in  Hwon  holy  chireche  is 
under  note  a  short  poem  in  septenars,  in  which  the  evils  of 
simony  within  the  church,  and  the  general  hatred  of  the  church 
without  are  lamented.  Sinners  Beware,  a  more  ambitious 
effort  in  six-line  stanzas  (aabaab),  is  directed  against  the  age 
generally,  though  worldly  priests,  a  rapacious  soldiery,  cheating 
chapmen  and  haughty  ladies  are  the  types  directly  aimed  at. 
And,  again,  in  a  Lutel  Soth  Sermun — a  poem  in  septenars — bad 


252  Early  Transition  English 

brewers  and  bakers,  priests'  wives  and  illicit  lovers  like  Malkin 
and  Jankin  are  railed  against.  While  thus  assailing  the  vices 
of  certain  types  and  classes  the  writers  frequently  follow  up 
their  indictment  with  the  argument  of  terror,  after  the  fashion 
of  the  Poema  Morale.  Material  for  thundering  of  this  sort  lay 
ready  to  hand  in  medieval  compositions  connected  with  the 
subjects  of  doomsday,  death  and  hell,  such  as  the  Old  English 
Be  Domes  Daege,  The  Address  of  the  Soid  to  the  Body  and  The 
Vision  of  St.  Paul.  In  the  poem  called  Doomsday  and  in  the 
work  On  Serving  Christ  the  first  of  these  themes  is  logically 
pursued.  The  clearest  use  of  The  Address  motive  appears  in 
the  poem  Death,  the  sequence  of  ideas  observed  in  The  Address 
being  here  preserved,  ^  while,  in  addition,  the  theme  is  slightly 
developed.  Other  reminiscences  of  the  same  motive  also 
appear  in  the  fragmentary  Signs  of  Death  and  in  Sinners 
Beware  (11.  331  ff.).  Of  The  Vision  of  St.  Paid  traces  are  clearly 
seen  in  The  XI  Pains  of  Hell.  The  depicting  of  hell  was  a 
favourite  medieval  exercise,  and  The  Vision  is  found  in  several 
languages.  The  archangel  Michael  is  represented  as  conduct- 
ing St.  Paul  into  the  gloomy  abode,  and  Dante's  journey  under 
Vergil's  guidance  is  merely  a  variation  of  this  theme.  The 
Vision  can  be  traced  in  the  twelfth  century  homily  In  Diebus 
Dominicis,  where  sabbath-breakers  are  warned.  In  The  XI 
Pains  of  Hell — a  poem  in  riming  couplets — the  treatment  is 
modified  by  the  addition  of  the  popular  Address  element.  A 
lost  soul  describes  the  place  of  torment  for  St.  Paul's  benefit, 
w^hereas  in  The  Vision  the  description  proceeds  from  the 
apostle  himself. 

Besides  satire  and  arguments  of  terror,  allegory  was  em- 
ployed for  the  same  didactic  end,  notably  in  the  Bestiary,  An 
Bispel  (a  Parable)  and  Sawles  Warde,  each  of  which  was 
based  on  a  Latin  original.  The  Bestiary  is  founded  on  the 
Latin  Physiologus  of  one  Thetbaldus,  though  earlier  specimens 
had  appeared  in  Old  EngHsh  and  Anglo-French.  Of  the  thir- 
teen animals  dealt  with,  twelve  are  taken  from  the  work  of 
Thetbaldus,  the  section  relating  to  the  dove  from  Neckam's 
De  Naturis  Rerum  (i,  56) .  The  method  of  teaching  is  venerable 
but  effective;  the  habits  of  animals  are  made  to  symbolise 
spiritual  truth.     The  work  does  not,  however,  represent  much 

^Mod.  Lang.  Notes  (1890),  p.  193. 


The  ''Bestiary"  253 

originality  .though  the  metrical  form  is  a  blending  of  old  and  new. 
Its  six-syllable  couplet  is  derived  either  from  the  Latin  hexa- 
meters of  the  original  or  from  Phihpe  de  Thaun's  couplet,  with 
which  it  is  identical.  But  the  treatment  is  far  from  regular; 
alliteration,  rime  and  assonance  are  promiscuously  used,  and 
syllabic  equivalence  is  but  imperfectly  apprehended.  Occa- 
sionally delightful  movements  are  obtained  such  as  exist  in 

Al  is  man  so  is  tis  ern, 

wulde  ge  nu  listen, 
old  in  hise  sinnes  dern, 

or  he  bicumeS  cristen : 

And  tus  he  neweS  him  Sis  man, 

Sanne  he  nimeS  to  kirke, 
or  he  it  biSenken  can, 

hise  egen  weren  mirke.  ^ 

But  the  whole  seems  to  point  to  artistic  inconsistencies  rather 
than  whimsical  handling,  though  the  work  is  interesting  as 
showing  English  verse  in  the  process  of  making.  The  second 
work,  An  Bispel,  is  a  free  translation  of  Anselm's  De  Similitu- 
dine  inter  Deum  et  quenilihet  regem  suos  jiidicantem.  This 
prose  parable  relates  and  explains  God's  dealings  with  mankind 
under  the  simile  of  a  feast  held  by  a  king,  to  which  are  invited, 
by  means  of  five  messengers,  both  friend  and  foe.  The  EngHsh 
adapter  adds  certain  details,  notably  the  incident  of  the  five 
messengers,  who  are  intended  to  represent  the  five  codes  of  law. 
The  Sawles  Warde,  a  more  pretentious  allegory  of  much  the 
same  date,  is  based  upon  a  Latin  prose  work  of  Hugo  de  St. 
Victor,  2  the  elements  of  which  were  suggested  by  St.  Matthew, 
xxiv,  43.  Wit  (judgment)  is  lord  of  a  castle  (the  soul  of  man). 
His  wife  (Will)  is  capricious,  and  the  serv^ants  (the  five  senses) 
are  hard  to  govern.  He  therefore  needs  the  assistance  of  his 
four  daughters  (the  four  cardinal  virtues,  prudence,  strength, 
temperance  and  righteousness) ;  but  the  good  behaviour  of  his 
household  is  ultimately  assured  by  the  appearance  of  two  mes- 
sengers. Fear  (messenger  of  death),  who  paints  the  terrors  of 
hell,  and  Love  of  Life,  who  describes  the  joys  of  heaven.     The 

'  Ll.  88-95.     /w  ^rw,  this  eagle,     c/ern,  secret,  or,  ere.  tus,  thus,  egen,  eyes. 
2  De  anima,  etc.    (  Works,  Bk.  iv,  chs.  13-15.)     See  VoUhart,  Einfluss, 
etc.,  pp.  26  ff. 


254  Early  Transition  English 

writer  shows  some  originality  in  his  treatment,  and  the  allegory 
in  his  hands  becomes  rather  more  coherent  and  convincing;  his 
characters  are  more  developed,  and  certain  dramatic  touches 
are  added  here  and  there.  The  same  motive  appears  in  a  short 
contemporaneous  poem  called  Wil  and  Wit.  Other  didactic 
methods  which  call  for  brief  mention  are  those  in  which  the 
joys  of  heaven  are  persuasively  described,  as,  for  instance, 
in  the  poems  Long  Life  and  The  Duty  of  Christians,  or  in  which 
the  dialogue  form  is  used  for  the  first  time,  as  in  Vices  and 
Virtues  {c.  1200) — "a  soul's  confession  of  its  sins,  with  reason's 
description  of  the  virtues." 

The  third  section  of  the  religious  writings  of  this  period  is 
wholly  concerned  with  the  religious  life  of  women.  The 
twelfth  century,  the  golden  age  of  monasticism,  witnessed  also 
an  increased  sympathy  with  convent  life ;  and  this  is  evident 
not  only  from  the  letters  of  Ailred,  but  also  from  the  increas- 
ing frequency  with  which  legacies  were  left  to  convent  commu- 
nities, and  from  the  founding  of  such  an  order  as  that  of  St. 
Gilbert  of  Sempringham.  ^  Before  the  Conquest  religious 
women  had  been  by  no  means  a  negligible  quantity.  The 
revival  of  interest  in  their  cause,  at  this  later  date,  was  part  of 
that  impulse  which  had  inspired,  on  the  continent,  the  mystical 
writers  St.  Hildegard  of  Bingen,  St.  Elisabeth  of  Schonau  and 
the  philanthropic  zeal  of  the  noble  Hedwig.  In  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  convent  of  Helfta  in  Saxony  was  the  centre  of 
these  tendencies;  and,  though  it  cannot  be  said  with  certainty 
that  England  produced  any  women-writers,  yet  the  attention 
to  practical  religion  and  mystical  thought,  which  had  been  the 
subjects  of  zeal  abroad,  are  tolerably  well  represented  in  the 
writings  for  women  in  England. 

Hali  Meidenhad  and  the  Lives  of  the  Saints  are  connected 
wHth  this  movement  by  the  incitement  they  furnish  to  convent 
life.  The  former,  an  alliterative  prose  homily,  is  based  on  the 
text  of  P^a/w  xlv.  10;  but  the  methods  of  the  writer  are  entirely 
wanting  in  that  gentle  grace  and  persuasion  which  are  found 
elsewhere.  He  sets  forth  his  arguments  in  a  coarse,  repellent 
manner.  Where  others  dwell  on  the  beauty  of  cloistered  affec- 
tion, he  derides  rather  gracelessly  the  troubles  of  the  married 
state;  and,  if  these  troubles  are  related  with  something  like 

»L.  Eckenstein,  Woman  under  Monasticism,  pp.  213  fE. 


Ancren  Riwle  255 

humour,  it  is  of  a  grim  kind  and  easily  slides  into  odious  invec- 
tive. Maidenly  ideals  are  exalted  in  more  becoming  fashion 
in  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  which  appeared  about  the  same  date. 
They  consist  of  three  rhythmical  alliterative  prose  lives  of  St. 
Margaret,  St.  Katharine  and  St.  Juliana,  based  on  Latin  orig- 
inals. Saintly  legends  had  revived  in  England  in  the  early 
thirteenth  century,  and  were  already  taking  the  place  of  the 
homily  in  the  services  of  the  church.  With  the  later  multi- 
plying of  themes  a  distinct  falling-off  in  point  of  style  became 
visible.  Of  the  three  lives,  that  of  St.  Katharine  is,  in  some 
respects,  the  most  attractive.  As  compared  with  its  original, 
the  character  of  the  saint  becomes  somewhat  softened  and 
refined  in  the  English  version.  She  has  lost  something  of 
that  impulsiveness,  that  hardy  revengeful  spirit  which  earlier 
writers  had  regarded  as  not  inconsistent  with  the  Christian  pro- 
fession. The  English  adapter  also  shows  some  idea  of  the  art 
of  story-telling,  in  removing  certain  superfluous  details.  But, 
in  all  three  works,  sufficient  horrors  remain  to  perpetuate  the 
terrors  of  an  earlier  age,  and,  in  general,  the  saintly  heroines 
are  more  remarkable  for  stern  undaunted  courage  of  the  Judith 
type  than  for  the  milder  charms  of  later  ideals.  Their  aim 
however  is  clear — to  glorify  the  idea  of  the  virgin  life. 

Besides  these,  there  are  certain  works  in  which  definite 
instruction  as  to  the  secluded  life  is  given  for  the  guidance  of 
those  who  had  already  entered  upon  that  career.  Early  in  the 
thirteenth  century  the  Latin  Rule  of  St.  Benet  (5 1 6)  w^as  adapted 
for  the  nuns  of  Winteney.  The  version  is  clearly  based  on 
some  masculine  text,  for  occasional  masculine  forms  ^  are 
inadvertently  retained  in  the  feminine  version.  A  chapter  is 
also  added  "concerning  the  priests  admitted  to  a  convent" 
(lxii).  The  aim  of  the  Ancren  Riwle  (anchoresses'  rule)  is  of  a 
similar  kind;  but  this  is  a  work  which,  owing  to  its  greater 
originality,  its  personal  charm  and  its  complete  sympathy  with 
all  that  was  good  in  contemporary  literature,  stands  apart  by 
itself  as  the  greatest  prose  work  of  "the  time,  and  as  one  of  the 
most  interesting  of  the  whole  Middle  English  period.  It 
may,  in  the  first  place,  be  assumed  that  the  English  version  is 
the  original  one,  though  French  and  Latin  forms  are  found, 
and  that  it  appeared  in  the  south  of  England  in  the  first  quarter 

'  Cf.  jear-owne,  139.  2,  etc. 


256  Early  Transition  English 

of  the  century.  The  question  of  authorship  is  still  unsolved. 
Richard  Poore,  bishop  of  Salisbury  (1217-29)  and  founder  of 
its  cathedral,  is  credited  with  it,  and  Tarrent  in  Dorsetshire  is 
regarded  as  the  site  of  the  anchorhold.  The  aim  of  the  work  is 
to  provide  ghostly  counsel  for  three  anchoresses,  i.e.  religious 
women,  who,  after  a  period  of  training  within  a  nunnery, 
dedicated  themselves  to  a  secluded  life  outside.  These  re- 
cluses often  lived  in  a  slight  dwelling  attached  to  a  church; 
and  such  may  have  been  the  conditions  of  these  "  three  pious 
sisters."  The  work  incidentally  throws  much  light  upon  the 
life  within  an  anchorhold,  upon  the  duties  of  the  inmates, 
the  out-sisters  and  maids,  and  their  sundry  difficulties,  whether 
of  a  business,  domestic,  or  spiritual  kind.  The  admonition 
imparted  was  not  without  precedent.  As  early  as  709  Aldhelm, 
in  his  De  Laudihus  Virginitatis,  had  depicted  the  glories  of  the 
celibate  life,  and  about  113 1-6 1  a  letter  {De  vita  eremitica)  was 
written  by  Ailred  of  Rievaulx  to  his  sister,  dealing  with  similar 
matters ;  since  this  latter  work  is  quoted  in  the  Ancren  Riwle, 
while  the  general  arrangement  of  both  is  the  same,  there  can 
be  little  doubt  of  a  certain  degree  of  indebtedness.  The  treatise 
opens  with  a  preface,  which  summarises  the  contents ;  sections 
I  and  VIII  refer  to  external  matters,  to  religious  ceremonies  and 
domestic  affairs;  sections  ii-vii  to  the  inward  life.  The  work 
has  much  that  is  medieval  commonplace,  an  abundance  of  well- 
digested  learning,  borrowings  from  Anselm  and  Augustine, 
Bernard  and  Gregory,  and  illustrations  which  reveal  a  consider- 
able acquaintance  with  animal  and  plant  lore.  The  author 
also  betrays  those  learned  tendencies  which  gloried  in  subtle 
distinctions.  There  is  the  ancient  delight  in  allegorical  teach- 
ing: Biblical  names  are  made  to  reveal  hidden  truths:  a  play 
upon  words  can  suggest  a  precept.  And,  alongside  of  all  this, 
which  is  severely  pedantic,  there  is  much  that  is  quaint  and 
picturesque.  Traces  are  not  wanting  of  a  vein  of  mysticism. 
Courtly  motives  occasionally  receive  a  spiritual  adaptation, 
and  here  and  there  are  touches  of  those  romantic  conceptions 
which  were  elsewhere  engaged  in  softening  the  severity  of 
religious  verse.  The  writer,  then,  is  possessed  of  the  learning 
of  the  age,  its  methods  of  teaching,  its  mystical  and  romantic 
tendencies.  And  3^et  these  facts  are  far  from  altogether  ex- 
plaining the  charm  of  the  work,  its  power  of  appeal  to  modem 


The  Virgin  Cult  257 

readers.  The  charm  lies  rather  in  the  writer's  individuality, 
in  his  gentle  refinement  and  lovable  nature.  The  keynote  of 
the  whole  work  seems  to  be  struck  in  that  part  of  the  preface 
where  the  sisters,  belonging  as  they  did  to  no  order  of  nuns, 
are  instructed  to  claim  for  themselves  the  order  of  St.  James. 
The  work  is  animated  by  the  "  pure  religion  and  undefiled"  of 
that  apostle,  and  is  instinct  with  lofty  morality  and  infinite 
tenderness.  The  writer's  instructions  as  to  ceremonies  and 
observances  are  broad-minded  and  reasonable;  his  remarks  on 
love  reveal  the  sweetness  and  light  which  dwelt  in  his  soul. 
The  prose  style  from  the  historical  standpoint  is  of  very  great 
merit.  The  ancient  fetters  are  not  quite  discarded;  there  is 
still  constraint  and  a  want  of  suppleness;  but  there  are  also 
signs  that  the  limping  gait  is  acquiring  freedom.  The  style, 
moreover,  is  earnest,  fresh  and  touched  with  the  charm  of  the 
sentiment  it  clothes.  Above  all  it  is  naive:  the  writer  occa- 
sionally reaches  the  heart,  while  provoking  a  smile. 

Closely  connected  with  this  woman-literature  are  those 
works  which  belong  to  the  Virgin  cult  and  those  which  are 
touched  w^ith  erotic  mysticism.  This  section  is  the  outcome 
of  those  chivalrous  ideals  which  had  dawned  in  the  twelfth 
century,  to  soften  the  harshness  of  earlier  heroics  and  to  refine 
the  relation  between  the  sexes.  These  new  ideals  coloured 
the  atmosphere  of  court  life,  and  the  exaltation  of  woman  in 
its  courtly  sense  found  a  counterpart  in  the  revived  Virgin 
cult,  just  as  knightly  wooing  suggested  the  image  of  the 
wistful  soul  striving  for  union  with  the  Divine.  This  erotic 
mysticism,  which  was  to  appear  again  in  Crashaw,  Herbert 
and  Vaughan,  was  merely  a  phase  of  those  allegorical  ten- 
dencies of  which  Dante  was  the  culmination.  The  pious  soul 
yearning  for  a  closer  walk  with  God  now  expressed  its  longings 
in  the  language  of  earthly  passion,  just  as  earlier  mystics  had 
tried  to  interpret  the  Divine  nature  by  the  use  of  more  com- 
monplace allegory.  And  this  development  was  encouraged 
by  the  mysticism  of  Hugo  de  St.  Victor,  which  influenced  both 
Paris  and  Oxford;  while  elsewhere  on  the  continent  a  school 
of  nuns  were  producing  works  laden  with  passion  and  breathing 
an  intense  emotion. 

The  Virgin  cult  is  represented  in  the  first  place  by  the  prose 
Lofsong  of  nre    Lcfdi,  a  fairly  close  translation  of    the  poem 

VOL.    I. 17. 


258  Early  Transition  English 

Oratio  ad  Sanctam  Mariam  of  Archbishop  Marbod  of  Rheims 
(1035-1 138) ,  and  by  On  God  Ureisim  of  ure  Lefdi  (A  Good  Orison 
of  our  Lady),  a  poem  in  riming  couplets,  for  which  no  Latin 
original  has  yet  been  found,  though  it  contains  suggestions  of 
the  work  of  Anselm.^  Other  examples  of  the  kind  are  found 
in  The  Five  Joys  of  the  Virgin,  a  poem  in  eight-line  stanzas ; 
A  Song  to  the  Virgin,  with  Latin  insertions;  A  Prayer  to  Our 
Lady,  a  sinner's  repentance  in  interesting  four-line  stanzas ;  A 
Prayer  to  the  Virgin,  in  similar  form.  Another  side  of  the  Vir- 
gin cult  is  represented  by  the  Middle  English  versions  of  the 
Compassio  Mariae  and  the  Assumptio  Mariae,  which  appeared 
about  the  middle  of  the  century.  The  former  is  a  west  Midland 
translation  of  a  Latin  hymn,  and  the  work  is  artistically  in- 
teresting as  illustrating  how  metrical  innovation  was  made. 
The  six-line  strophe  and  the  riming  formula  are  taken  over 
from  the  original,  though  this  identity  of  form  prevents  a  literal 
rendering.  The  treatment  is  otherwise  not  without  originality. 
Alliterative  ornament  is  added,  and  use  is  made  of  a  popular 
piece  of  medieval  fancy,  namely  the  comparison  of  Christ's 
birth  to  a  sunbeam  passing  through  glass  and  leaving  it  un- 
stained. 2  Assumptio  Mariae  rests  on  a  venerable  legend  of  the 
ascension  of  Mary;  it  is  of  eastern  origin,  but  is  found  in  Latin ^ 
German  and  French  versions.  The  English  version  is  written 
in  short  couplets,  and  appears  to  be  of  an  eclectic  kind.  The 
episode  of  unbelieving  Thomas  is  taken  from  a  Latin  version ; 
otherwise  the  poem  is  strongly  reminiscent  of  Wace's  Vie  de 
la  Vierge  Marie. 

Tj /Erotic  mysticism  is  best  represented  by  the  Luve  Ron  of 
Thomas  de  Hales,  a  delightful  lyric  in  eight-line  stanzas,  written 
in  the  earlier  portion  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  and  probably 
before  1240  judging  from  the  allusion  in  11.  97  ff.  The  writer 
was  a  native  of  Hales  (Gloucester),  who,  after  a  career  at  Paris 
and  Oxford,  attained  considerable  distinction  as  a  scholar. 
The  main  theme  of  the  work  is  the  perfect  love  which  abides 
with  Christ  and  the  joy  and  peace  of  mystic  union  with  Him, 
The  poem  is  full  of  lofty  devotion  and  passionate  yearning; 
its  deep  seriousness  is  conveyed  through  a  medium  tender 
and  refined,  and  it  is,  in  short,  one  of  the  most  attractive  and 

'  Vollhardt,  Einfluss  der  lat.  geistlichen  Litt.  etc.,  pp.  41  ff. 
»A.  Napier,  E.E.T.S.  cm,  pp.  75  ff. 


The  "Luve  Ron"  259 

impassioned    works   of   the   time,  as   the   following    extracts 
suggest : 

Mayde  her  )>u  myht  biholde, 

>is  worldes  luue  nys  bute  o  res, 
And  is  by-set  so  fele-volde, 

Vikel  and  frakel  and  wok  and  les. 
peos  J'eines  }at  her  weren  bolde 

Beo>  aglyden,  so  wyndes  bles: 
Under  molde  he  liggej'  colde, 

And  falewep  so  dop  medewe  gres. 


Hwer  is  Paris  and  Heleyne 

J^at  weren  so  bryht  and  feyre  on  bleo: 
Amadas,  Tristram,  and  Dideyne 

Yseude  and  alle  J^eo: 
Ector  wip  his  scharpe  meyne 

And  Cesar  riche  of  wor  [1]  des  feo? 
Heo  beo)j  iglyden  ut  of  pe  reyne. 

So  )'e  schef  is  of    e  cleo.  ^ 

The  three  prose  prayers,  The  Wohung  of  ure  Lauerd,  On  Lofsong 
of  ure  Louerde  and  On  Ureisun  of  ure  Louerde  belong  to  the 
same  category  as  the  Luve  Ron.  They  are  written  in  alliter- 
ative prose,  2  which  aimed  at  obtaining  the  emphatic  move- 
ment of  Old  English  verse,  and  is  most  effective  in  recitation, 
though  the  absence  of  metrical  rules  brings  about  a  looser 
structure.  All  three  prayers  consist  of  passionate  entreaties 
for  closer  communion  with  Christ,  and  the  personal  feeHng 
revealed  in  them  illustrates  the  use  of  the  love  motive  in  the 
service  of  religion.  But  to  interpret  the  love  terminology 
literally  and  to  connect  these  prayers  solely  with  the  devotions 
of  nuns,  as  one  critic  suggests,  seems  to  involve  a  misappre- 
hension of  their  tone,  for  it  infuses  into  their  being  an  earth- 
liness  quite  out  of  keeping  with  their  rarefied  sentiment. 
Further,  these  works  have  some  points  in  common,  occasionally 
literal  agreement,  with  the  Ancren  Riwle  and  Hali  Meidenhad, 
but  in  all  probabilty  it  is  in  the  works  of  Anselm  and   Hugo  de 

'  Ll.  9-16;  65-72.  o'res,  passing,  transitory,  frakel,  base,  wok,  feeble. 
les,  false,  bles,  blast,  meyne,  might,  feo,  wealth,  schef  of  \ie  cleo,  corn 
from  the  hill-side. 

2  Cf.  Hwa  ne  mei  luue  Yi  luueli  leor  ? 


26o  Early  Transition  English 

St.  Victor  that  the  sources  must  be  sought,  in  which  case  all 
these  English  works  are  distinct  and  separate  borrowings  from 
the  same  Latin  originals.^ 

We  come  now  to  that  section  of  the  literature  of  the  period 
which  represents  a  revolt  against  established  religious  themes. 
It  has  been  seen  that  religious  writers  occasionally  made  use  of 
the  motives  of  legend  and  love,  and  from  this  it  might  be  in- 
ferred that  these  were  the  directions  into  which  the  general 
taste  was  inclining.  At  all  events  these  are  the  lines  along 
which  the  literary  revolt  began  to  develop,  Layamon, in  the  first 
instance,  setting  forth  in  the  vernacular  legendary  material 
which  came  to  hand.  Layamon 's  Bnit,  written  early  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  has  come  down  in  two  MSS.  (A  text  and  B 
text),  belonging  respectively  to  the  first  and  second  halves  of 
the  thirteenth  century.  The  later  version  has  numerous  scribal 
alterations :  there  are  many  omissions  of  words  and  passages,  the 
spelling  is  slightly  modernised,  riming  variants  are  introduced 
and  foreign  substitutes  take  the  place  of  obsolescent  native 
words.  The  author  reveals  his  identity  in  the  opening  lines. 
^  He  is  Layamon,  a  priest  of  Ernley  (Arley  Regis,  Worcester),  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Severn,  where  he  was  wont  to  *  *  read  books ' ' 
(i.e.,  the  services  of  the  church) .  Layamon's  ambitious  purpose 
was  to  tell  the  story  of  Britain  from  the  time  of  the  Flood.  He 
is,  however,  content  to  begin  with  the  story  of  Troy  and  the 
arrival  of  Brutus,  and  to  end  with  the  death  of  Cadwalader, 
689  A.D.  As  regards  his  sources,  he  mentions  the  English  book 
of  Bede,  the  Latin  books  of  St.  Albin  and  St.  Austin  (by  which 
he  probably  meant  the  Latin  version  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical 
History)  and  thirdly,  the  Brut  of  the  French  clerk  Wace.  Of  the 
first  two  authorities,  however,  it  is  curious  to  note,  he  makes 
not  the  slightest  use.  The  account  of  Gregory  and  the  English 
captives  at  Rome  (11.  29,445  ff.),  which  is  often  quoted  in  sup- 
port of  his  indebtedness  to  Bede,  in  reality  proves  his  entire 
independence,  for  glaring  discrepancies  occur  between  the 
respective  narratives.  Elsewhere  in  the  Brut  Bede  is  directly 
contradicted 2  and,  in  fact,  Layamon's  assertion  of  indebted- 
ness, as  far  as  Bede  is  concerned,  can  be  nothing  more  than 
a  conventional  recognition  of  a  venerable  work  which  dealt 

'  Vollhardt,  Einfluss  der  lat.  geistlichen  Litt.  etc.,  pp.  41  ff. 
2  Cf.  Layamon,  Brut,  412  :  Eede,  i,  3,  etc. 


Layamon's  ''Brut"  261 

with  a  kindred  subject.  Convention  rather  than  fact  also  lay 
behind  his  statement  that  he  had  consulted  works  in  three 
different  languages. 

His  debt  to  Wace,  however,  is  beyond  all  doubt.  Innumer- 
able details  are  common  to  both  works,  and,  moreover,  it  is 
clear  that  it  is  Wace's  work  rather  than  Wace's  original  (Geof- 
frey of  Monmouth's  History  of  the  Kings  of  Britain)  that  has 
been  laid  under  contribution.  ^  In  the  first  place,  Wace  and 
Layamon  have  certain  details  in  common  which  are  lacking 
in  the  work  of  Geoffrey;  in  the  matter  of  omissions  Wace  and 
Layamon  frequently  agree  as  opposed  to  Geoft'rey ;  while  again 
they  often  agree  in  differing  from  the  Latin  narrative  in  regard 
to  place  and  personal  names.  But  if  Wace's  Brut  forms  the 
groundwork  of  Layamon's  work,  in  the  latter  there  are  numer- 
ous details,  not  accounted  for  by  the  original,  which  have  gener- 
ally been  attributed  to  Celtic  {i.e.  Welsh)  influences.  Many  of 
these  details,  however,  have  recently  been  shown  to  be  non- 
Welsh.  The  name  of  Argante  the  elf -queen,  as  well  as  that  of 
Modred,  for  instance,  point  to  other  than  Welsh  territory.  The 
traits  added  to  the  character  of  Arthur  are  in  direct  opposition 
to  what  is  known  of  Welsh  tradition.  The  elements  of  the 
Arthurian  saga  relating  to  the  Round  Table  are  known  to  have 
been  treated  as  spurious  by  Welsh  writers ;  Tysiho,  in  his  Brut, 
for  instance,  passes  them  over.  Therefore  the  explanation  of 
this  additional  matter  in  Layamon,  as  compared  with  Wace, 
must  be  sought  for  in  other  than  Welsh  material.  ^ 

Hitherto,  when  Wace's  Brut  has  been  mentioned,  it  has  been 
tacitly  assumed  that  the  printed  version  of  that  work  was 
meant,  rather  than  one  of  those  numerous  versions  which  either 
remain  in  manuscript  or  have  since  disappeared.  One  MS. 
(Add.  32,125.  Brit.  Mus.),  however,  will  be  found  to  explain 
certain  name-forms,  concerning  which  Layamon  is  in  conflict 
with  the  printed  Wace.  And  other  later  works,  such  as  the 
Anglo-French  Brut  (thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century)  and  the 
English  metrical  Mort  Arthur,  both  of  which  are  based  on  un- 
printed  versions  of  Wace,  contain  material  which  is  present  in 
Layamon,  namely,  details  connected  with  the  stories  of  Lear, 

1  R.  Wulcker,  P.B.B.  in,  pp.  530  ff. 

2  For  the  main  points  contained  in  the  discussion  of  Layamon's  sources 
see  Imelmann,  Layamon,  Versuch  uber  seine  Quellen. 


262  Early  Transition  English 

Merlin  and  Arthur.  Therefore  it  seems  possible  that  Layamon, 
like  the  authors  of  the  later  works,  used  one  of  the  variant 
texts.  Further,  the  general  nature  of  Layamon's  additions 
appears  to  be  Breton  or  Norman.  The  names  Argante  and 
Delgan,  for  instance,  are  derived  through  Norman  media;  the 
fight  between  Arthur  and  Frollo  is  found  in  the  Roman  des 
Franceis  (1204)  of  Andre  de  Coutances.  But  Layamon  seems 
to  stand  in  yet  closer  relation  to  Gaimar's  Rhyming  Chronicle, 
so  far  as  that  book  can  be  judged  from  the  related  MUnchner 
Brut.  An  explanation  of  the  Carric-Cinric  confusion,  for  in- 
stance, would  be  obtained  by  this  assumption.  The  represen- 
tation of  Cerdic  and  Cinric  in  Layamon  as  one  and  the  same 
person  1  might  conceivably  be  due,  not  to  the  account  in  the 
Old  English  Chronicle,  but  to  some  such  foreign  version  as  is 
found  in  Gaimar  (11.  819  ff.).  To  Gaimar  moreover  may  prob- 
ably be  attributed  several  details  of  Layamon's  style — his 
tendenc}^  to  employ  forms  of  direct  speech,  his  discursiveness, 
his  appeals  to  the  gods  and  his  protestations  as  to  the  truth  of 
his  narrative.  It  is  possible  that  one  of  the  later  versions  of 
Wace  may  have  embodied  details  taken  from  Gaimar.  Wau- 
rin's  Chroniques  et  istoires  (fifteenth  century)  seems  a  compila- 
tion of  this  kind,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  Layamon's 
original  may  have  been  a  similarly  compiled  work,  with,  it 
should  be  added,  elements  taken  from  contemporary  Tristram 
and  Lancelot  poems.  In  any  case,  the  English  Brut  is  not 
based  on  the  printed  Brut  of  Wace,  but  on  one  of  the  later  ver- 
sions of  which  certain  MSS.  remain  and  of  which  other  traces 
can  be  found.  This  particular  version  had  probably  been 
supplemented  by  Breton  material  introduced  through  some 
Norman  medium,  and,  since  this  supplementary  portion  is 
reminiscent  of  Gaimar,  there  is  reason  for  supposing  that  the 
particular  version  may  have  been  mainly  a  compilation  of  the 
earlier  works  of  Wace  and  Gaimar. 

This  view  as  to  sources  must  modify,  in  some  degree,  the 
estimate  to  be  formed  of  Layamon's  artistic  merits,  and  must 
discount  the  value  of  some  of  the  additions  formerly  ascribed 
to  his  imagination  or  research.  It  will  also  account  for  certain 
matters  of  style  already  mentioned.  But,  when  these  items 
have  been  removed,  there  still  remains  much  that  is  Layamon's 
1  Cf.  II.  28,867  ff. 


Layamon's  "Brut"  263 

own,  sufficient  to  raise  his  work  far  above  the  rank  of  a  mere 
translation.  The  poet's  English  individuality  may  be  said  to 
per\^ade  the  whole.  It  appears  in  the  reminiscences  of  English 
popular  legend  perceived  in  Wygar,  the  maker  of  Arthur's  corse- 
let, and  in  the  sea  of  Lumond,  the  "atteliche  pole,"  where 
"nikeres"  bathe.  His  English  temperament  appears  in  the 
fondness  he  betrays  for  maxims  and  proverbs,  which  afford 
relief  from  the  mere  business  of  the  narrative.  The  poet  is 
still  in  possession  of  the  ancient  vocabulary,  with  its  hosts  of 
synonyms,  though  the  earlier  parallelisms  which  retarded 
the  movement  are  conspicuously  absent.  His  most  resonant 
lines,  like  those  of  his  literary  ancestors,  deal  w4th  the  conflict 
of  warriors  or  with  that  of  the  elements.  In  such  passages 
as  those  which  describe  the  storm  that  overtook  Ursula  (ii,  74), 
or  the  wrestling  match  between  Corineus  and  the  giant  (i,  79), 
he  attains  the  true  epic  note,  while  his  words  gather  strength 
from  their  alliterative  setting.  His  verse  is  a  compromise 
between  the  old  and  the  new.  With  the  Old  English  line  still 
ringing  in  his  ears,  he  attempts  to  regulate  the  rhythm,  and 
occasionally  to  adorn  his  verse  with  rime  or  assonance.  His 
device  of  simile  was,  no  doubt,  caught  from  his  original,  for 
many  of  the  images  introduced  are  coloured  by  the  Norman 
love  of  the  chase,  as  when  a  fox-hunt  is  introduced  to  depict 
the  hunted  condition  of  Childric  (11,  452),  or  the  pursuit  of  a 
wild  crane  by  haw^ks  in  the  fenland  to  describe  the  chase  after 
Colgrim  (11,  422).  The  poet,  in  general,  handles  his  borrowings 
with  accuracy,  but  he  has  limitations — perhaps  shows  impa- 
tience— as  a  scholar.  Apart  from  a  totally  uncritical  attitude 
— a  venial  sin  in  that  age — he  betrays,  at  times,  a  certain  igno- 
rance on  historical  and  geographical  points.  But  such  anach- 
ronisms and  irregularities  are  of  little  importance  in  a  work  of 
this  kind,  and  do  not  detract  from  its  literary  merits.  Other 
verbal  errors  suggest  that  the  work  of  translation  was  to 
Layamon  not  devoid  of  difficulty.  Where  Wace  indulges  in 
technical  terminology,  as  in  his  nautical  description  of  Ar- 
thur's departure  from  Southampton,  Layamon  here  and  else- 
where solves  his  linguistic  difficulties  by  a  process  of  frank 
omission. 

The  interest  which  the  Bntt  possesses  for  modern  readers 
arises  in  part  from  the  fact  that  much  of  its  material  is  closely 


2^4  Early  Transition  English 

bound  up  with  later  English  literature.  Apart  from  the  Arthur- 
ian legend  here  appear  for  the  first  time  in  English  the  story  of 
Leir  and  Kinbelin,  Cloten  and  Arviragus.  But  the  main  inter- 
est centres  round  the  Arthurian  section,  with  its  haunting  story 
of  a  wondrous  birth,  heroic  deeds  and  a  mysterious  end.  The 
grey  king  appears  in  a  garment  of  chivalry.  As  compared 
with  the  Arthur  of  Geoffrey's  narrative,  his  figure  has  grown 
in  knightliness  and  splendour.  He  is  endowed  with  the  added 
traits  of  noble  generosity  and  heightened  sensibility;  he  has 
advanced  in  courtesy ;  he  is  the  defender  of  Christianity ;  he  is 
a  lover  of  law  and  order.  And  Layamon's  narrative  is  also 
interesting  historically.  It  is  the  work  of  the  first  writer  of  any 
magnitude  in  Middle  English,  and,  standing  at  the  entrance 
to  that  period,  he  may  be  said  to  look  before  and  after.  He 
retains  much  of  Old  English  tradition;  in  addition,  he  is  the 
first  to  make  extensive  use  of  French  material.  And,  lastly, 
in  the  place  of  a  fast  vanishing  native  mythology,  he  endows 
his  countrymen  with  a  new  legendary  store  in  which  lay  con- 
cealed the  seeds  of  later  chivalry. 

The  Owl  and  Nightingale,  which  represents  another  line  of 
literary  revolt,  has  come  down  in  two  MSS.,  one  dating  from  the 
first,  the  other  from  the  second,  half  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Of  the  two  MSS.  the  earHer  (Cotton  MS.)  is  the  more  trust- 
w^orthy;  the  scribe  of  the  other  has  frequently  omitted  unim- 
portant monosyllabic  words,  regardless  of  scansion,  besides 
having  altered  inflexional  endings  and  made  sundry  substitu- 
tions in  the  matter  of  diction;  such  alterations  are  clearly 
revealed  in  riming  positions.  The  authorship  is  a  matter  of  con- 
jecture; Nicholas  of  Guilford,  a  cleric  of  Portisham  (Dorset), 
who  is  mentioned  thrice  in  the  poem,  is  supposed  by  some  to 
have  been  the  writer,  but  the  objections  to  this  view  are  that 
the  allusions  are  all  in  the  third  person,  and  that  lavish  praise 
is  showered  on  his  name.  On  the  other  hand,  since  the  poem 
aims  incidentally  at  urging  the  claims  of  Nicholas  to  clerical 
preferment,  the  end  may  have  justified  the  means  and  may 
account  for  the  unstinted  praise  as  well  as  the  anonymous 
character  of  the  work.  But  the  name  of  John  of  Guildford  must 
also  be  mentioned.  He  is  known  to  have  written  some  verse 
about  this  period,  and,  since  the  common  appellation  implies 
a  connection  between  the  two,  it  may  have  been  that  he  was  the 


"  The  Owl  and  Nightingale  "  265 

advocate  of  Nicholas's  cause.  On  internal  and  external  evi- 
dence, the  poem  may,  approximately,  be  dated  1220.  The 
benediction  pronounced  upon  "King  Henri"  (11.  1091-2) 
clearly  refers  to  Henry  II;  but  the  borrowings  from  Neckam 
make  an  earlier  date  than  1200  impossible.  The  mention  of  a 
papal  mission  to  Scotland  (1.  1095)  may  refer  to  the  visit  of 
Vivian  in  1 1 74,  or  to  that  of  cardinal  Guala  in  12 18.  The  poem 
was  probably  written  before  the  year  1227,  for  at  that  date 
the  regency  ceased,  and,  with  Henry  III  reigning,  the  benedic- 
tion would  be  ambiguous,  not  to  say  ominous.  As  regards 
sources,  no  direct  original  has  been  found;  the  poem  embodies 
the  spirit  as  well  as  the  structure  of  certain  Old  French  models 
without  being  a  copy  of  any  one.  There  are  certain  details, 
however,  which  appear  to  have  been  definitely  borrowed,  and 
of  these  the  most  interesting  is  the  nightingale  episode  (11. 1049- 
62).  It  is  narrated  at  length  in  Marie  de  France's  lai,  Laustic 
(c.  1 1 70),  as  line  aventure  dunt  le  Bretun  firent  tin  lai,  and  before 
the  close  of  the  century  it  appeared  in  a  balder  form  in  Neck- 
am's  De  Naturis  Rerum.  Its  subsequent  popularity  is  attested 
by  its  frequent  reappearances  in  both  French  and  English. 
The  episode,  as  it  appears  in  The  Owl  and  Nightingale,  is  due 
partly  to  Marie  de  France,  partly  to  Neckam.  There  are  fur- 
ther details  in  the  poem  which  are  reminiscent  of  Neckam's 
De  Naturis  Renmi,  while  the  description  of  the  barbarous 
north  (11.  999  ff.).  is  possibly  based  on  a  similar  description  in 
Alfred's  translation  of  Orosius.  The  structure  of  the  poem  is 
of  a  composite  kind.  The  main  elements  are  drawn  from  the 
Old  French  debat,  but  there  is  also  a  proverbial  element  as  well 
as  Bestiary  details,  which,  though  slight  in  amount,  give  a  col- 
ouring to  the  whole.  Of  the  various  kinds  of  the  Old  French 
debat,  it  is  the  tengon  in  particular  upon  which  the  poem  is 
modelled,  for  that  poem,  unlike  the  j en-parti,  has  no  deliberate 
choice  of  sides ;  each  opponent  undertakes  the  defence  of  his  _ 
nature  and  kind.  And,  in  addition  to  the  general  structure, 
the  poet  has  borrowed  further  ideas  from  this  same  genre, 
namely,  the  appointment  of  judge,  suggested  by  the  challenger 
and  commented  upon  by  his  opponent;  the  absence  of  the 
promised  verdict ;  the  use  of  certain  conventional  figures  of  the 
Old  French  debat,  such  as  le  jaloiix  (cf.  11.  1075  ff.),  la  mal  mariec 
(cf.  11.  1520  ff.),  and  the  adoption  of  love  as  the  theme  of  the 


266  Early  Transition  English 

whole.  The  proverbial  element  is  derived  from  the  lips  of  the 
people,  and,  of  the  sixteen  maxims,  eleven  are  connected  with 
the  name  of  iVlfred.  In  representing  his  disputants  as  members 
of  the  bird  world,  and  in  interpreting  their  habits  to  shadow 
forth  his  truths,  the  poet  has  adopted  the  methods  of  the  Bes- 
tiary. His  use  of  the  motive  is,  however,  so  far  untraditional 
in  that  the  nightingale,  unlike  the  owl,  did  not  appear  in  the 
ancient  Physiologus.  , 

The  main  significance  of  the  poem  has  been  subjected  to 
much  misconception.  Its  ultimate  intention,  as  already  stated, 
seems  to  have  been  to  suggest  to  English  readers  a  new  type  of 
poetry.  To  the  medieval  mind  the  poetic  associations  of  the 
nightingale  were  invariably  those  of  love ;  according  to  her  own 
description,  her  song  was  one  of  "skentinge"  (amusement), 
and  its  aim  was  to  teach  the  nobility  of  faithful  love.  She  is, 
however,  induced  to  emphasise  (11.  1347-1450)  the  didactic 
side  of  her  singing,  in  order  to  meet  more  successfully  her  dour 
opponent;  but  the  emphasis  is  merely  a  passado  in  a  bout  of 
dialectics,  and,  further,  no  inconsistency  is  involved  with  her 
own  statement,  "And  soth  hit  is  of  luve  ich  singe,"  when  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  ignorance  of  the  barbarous  north  concerning 
those  love-songs,  or  of  the  wantonness  at  times  induced  by  her 
passionate  music.  Her  dignified  defence  of  love  (11.  1378  fT.), 
moreover,  finds  a  counterpart  in  many  products  of  the  contem- 
porary school  of  love-poetry.  The  owl,  on  the  other  hand,  un- 
mistakably represents  a  poet  of  the  reHgious  type.  Her  doleful 
notes  and  the  essentially  didactic  character  of  her  songs,  her 
special  chants  at  Christmas,  and  her  duties  of  bestowing  com- 
fort, are  all  in  keeping  with  her  own  description  of  herself  when 
she  says: 

Ich  wisse  men  mid  mine  songe 
That  hi  ne  suneji  nowiht  longe.  ^ 

As  to  the  writer's  personal  attitude,  he  inclines  rather  to  the 
side  of  the  nightingale.  The  virtues  of  the  rehgious  school 
clearly  emerge  in  the  course  of  the  debate ;  yet  it  cannot  but  be 
felt  that  the  poem  embodies  "a  new  spirit  of  opposition  to 
monastic  training  "^  only,  the  contending  spirit  was  the  erotic 
theme  and  not  the  secular  priest. 

1  Ll.  927-8.     wisse,  direct      sunai,  sin. 

2  Courthope,  History  of  English  Poetry,  vol.  I,  ch.  iv. 


"The  Owl  and  Nightingale"  267 

From  the  literary  point  of  view  the  pocr.i  forms  an  interest- 
ing contrast  with  the  works  of  the  earlier  period.  The  Old 
English  embroidered  diction  is  replaced  by  a  mode  of  expres- 
sion less  redundant,  more  unpretending,  more  natural.  Words 
are  no  longer  artificially  arranged,  but  follow  the  order  of 
thought.  The  similes  employed  in  the  place  of  earlier  meta- 
phor are  of  a  colloquial  character,  effective  in  their  unexpected- 
ness ;  and  the  dawn  of  humour  is  surely  at  hand  when  the  owl 
in  her  bitterness  exclaims  to  the  nightingale, 

]'u  chaterest  so  dofi  on  Irish  preost  ^ ; 

or  when  the  nightingale  hurls  back  the  happy  retort, 

Jiu  singest   so   do>   hen   a-snowe.^ 

Moreover  the  illustrations  made  use  of  are  no  mere  reprints  of 
orthodox  scenes;  they  reflect  country  life  and  the  life  of  the 
people  which,  in  modern  times.  Hardy  and  Barnes  were  to  illu- 
minate. Freshness  and  origina;lity,  is,  however,  carried  at  times 
to  excess  in  the  vituperations  in  which  the  disputants  indulge, 
when  crudity  and  naked  strength  seem  virtues  overdone.  Most 
interesting,  on  the  other  hand,  are  the  signs  of  an  appreciation 
of  the  softer  side  of  nature.  It  was  the  wilder  aspects  of 
nature  which  had  appealed  to  the  earlier  school.  The  present 
poet  saw  beauty  in  the  gentle  arrival  of  spring,  with  its  blos- 
soming meadows  and  flower-decked  woodlands,  as  w^ell  as  in 
mellow  autumn  with  its  golden  hues  and  fallow  tints.  The 
nightingale  paints  a  couple  of  dainty  word-pictures  when  she 
describes  her  coming  and  going.     Upon  her  arrival,  she  sings, 

}e  blostme  ginne>  springe  and  sprede 

BoJ'e  in  tr^o  and  ek  on  mede, 

])e  lilie  mid  hire  faire  wlite 

Wolcume]'  me,  J>at  ]>vl  wite. 

Bit  me,  mid  hire  faire  bko 

>at  ich  shulle  to  hire  fi^o. 

J'e  rose  also  mid  hire  rude, 

pat  cume>  ut  of  >e  >ornewude, 

Bit  me  J'at  ich  shulle  singe, 

Vor  hire  luve,  one  skentinge.^ 

1 L.  322. 

2  L.  412.     a-snowe,  in  the  snow. 

3  LI.  437-46.     wlite,  beauty,      bit,  bids,     rude,  ruddy,  colour,     skentinge, 
piece  for  amusement. 


268  Early  Transition  English 

Her  departure  takes  place  amid  other  scenes : 

Hwan  is  ido  vor  hwan  ich  com, 
Ich  fare  a?en  and  do  wisdom: 
//wane  mon  ho5e]?  of  his  sheve, 
And  falewi  cumej>  on  grene  leva, 
Ich  fare  horn  and  nime  leve 
Ne  recche  ich  nojt  of  winteres  reve.* 

Nor  is  the  poem  devoid  of  appreciation  of  dramatic  situation 
and  dramatic  methods.  The  debate  is  brought  to  a  dramatic 
cHmax  by  the  appearance  of  the  wren  and  his  companions, 
while  considerable  skill  is  shown  in  the  characterisation  of  the 
two  disputants.  Brief  interludes  are  introduced  for  the  sake 
of  relief  and  variety:  they  also  add  slight  touches  by  the  way 
to  the  character  sketches.  Between  the  lines  may  be  caught, 
here  and  there,  glimpses  of  contemporary  life.  The  festival 
of  Christmas  with  its  carol-services,  the  laus  perennis  of  ca- 
thedrals and  monasteries,  and  the  daily  service  of  the  parish 
priest,  the  rampant  injustice  in  the  bestowal  of  livings,  the 
picture  of  the  gambler  and  the  tricks  of  the  ape,  all  help  to 
give  a  historical  setting.  The  verse  is  modelled  on  French 
octosyllabics,  and  the  earlier  staccato  movement  gives  place 
to  a  more  composed  rhythm.  As  a  rule,  the  rimes  are  won- 
derfully correct,  and  it  is  instructive  to  note  that  the  pro- 
portion of  masculine  to  feminine  rimes  is  that  of  lo:  37.  This 
fact  is  interesting  in  connection  with  Chaucerian  work,  wheife 
the  fondness  for  the  feminine  form,  which  is  less  pronounced 
than  in  the  present  poem,  has  been  ascribed  to  Italian  in- 
fluences. It  is  obvious  that  no  such  influence  is  at  work  here ; 
nor  can  Old  French  models  have  suggested  the  form,  the 
masculine  rime  being  there  preferred.  It  must  have  arisen 
from  native  riming  exigencies.  Iambic  lines  had,  necessarily, 
to  end  with  accented  riming  syllables:  but,  since  the  English 
accent  fell  on  the  root  syllable  in  all  cases  where  the  riming 
word  was  of  two  syllables,  the  second  would  become  a  sort 
of  light  ending  and  go  to  form  a  feminine  rime.  The  poem  is, 
therefore,  one  of  many-sided  interest.  Its  permanent  value 
lies  in  its  oft-sounded  note  of  freedom,  in  its  metrical  inno- 
vations, its  discarding  of  the  artificial  for  the  natural,  its  grasp 

>  Ll.  453-8.     ho^e]>,  garners,     nime  leve,  take  my  leave,     reve,  plunder. 


"The  Owl  and  Nightingale"  269 

of  new  methods,  its  new  ideals  and  in  the  daring  suggestion 
it  makes  in  connection  with  love.  And,  finally,  it  must  be 
confessed,  the  poet  had  travelled  well.  Though  full  of  ap- 
preciation for  a  foreign  literature,  he  has  not  changed  "his 
Country  Manners  for  those  of  Forraigne  Parts";  he  has 
"  onely  pricked  in  some  of  the  Flowers  of  that  he  had  Learned 
abroad  into  the  Customes  of  his  owne  Country."  And  in 
this  way  more  than  one  of  our  poets  have  since  that  day 
written. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Arthurian  Legend 

A  GRAVE  there  is  for  March"  (or  "Mark")— so  runs  a 
stanza  in  one  of  the  oldest  extant  Welsh  poems  ^ — 
"a  grave  for  Gwythur,  a  grave  for  Gwgawn  of  the 
Ruddy  Sword;  a  mystery  is  the  grave  of  Arthur."  "Some 
men  say  yet,"  wrote  Sir  Thomas  Malory,  many  centuries  later, 
"  that  king  Arthur  is  not  dead,  but  had  by  the  will  of  our  Lord 
Jesu  into  another  place."  The  mystery  of  Arthur's  grave  still 
remains  unsolved,  for 

Where  is  he  who  knows  ? 
From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he  goes. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  in  the  very  heyday  of 
the  British  king's  renown  as  a  romantic  hero,  the  monks  of  St. 
Dunstan's  at  Glastonbury — at  the  original  instance,  it  is  said,  of 
Henry  II — professed  to  have  discovered  the  mortal  remains  of 
Arthur  in  the  cemetery  of  their  abbey  church.  2  Some  sixty 
years  before,  William  of  Malmesbury  had  given  an  account  of 
the  discovery  in  Wales  of  the  grave  of  Arthur's  nephew,  Ga- 
wain  but  the  grave  of  Arthur  himself  was  not,  he  said,  any- 
where to  be  found;  hence  ancient  songs ^  prophesy  his  return. 
It  was  thought  that  the  illusory  expectations  thus  cherished 
by  the  British  Celts  could  be  dispelled  by  the  Glastonbury  exhu- 
mation. But  so  sorry  an  attempt  to  poison  the  wells  of  romance 
met  with  the  failure  it  deserved.  Arthur  lived  on,  inviolal^e  in 
fabled  Avalon.     Graven  on  no  known  sepulchre,  his  name, 

'  A  poem,  in  triplet  form,  entitled  The  Stanzas  of  the  Graves,  preserved  in 
The  Black  Book  of  Carmarthen,  a  MS.  of  the  twelfth  century. 

2  Giraldus  Cambrensis  gives  the  longest  account  of  the  affair  (De  Principis- 
Instructione,  viii,  126-9). 

3  Antiquitas  naeitiarum.     Gesta  Reguni  Anglorum,  Bk.  Iii. 

270 


International  Property  271 

a  ghost, 
Streams  like  a  cloud,  man-shaped,  from  mountain  peak, 
And  cleaves  to  cairn  and  cromlech  still. 

The  memory  of  no  other  British  hero  is  so  extensively  pre- 
served in  the  place-names  of  these  islands;  "®nly  the  devil  is 
more  often  mentioned  in  local  association  than  Arthur."  ^ 

The  nomenclature  of  Arthurian  fable,  which  has  a  volumi- 
nous critical  literature  of  its  own,  does  not  concern  us  here.  No 
student  of  Arthurian  origins,  however,  can  fail  to  be  impressed 
by  the  strange  disproportion  between  the  abundance  of  Arthur- 
ian place-names  in  the  British  islands  and  the  amount  of  early 
British  literature,  whether  in  English  or  in  the  insular  Celtic 
tongues,  dealing  with  the  Arthurian  legend.  The  early  English 
Arthurian  literature,  in  particular,  is  singularly  meagre  and 
undistinguished.  The  romantic  exploitation  of  "the  matter  of 
Britain"  was  the  achievement,  mainly,  of  French  writers — so 
much  so  that  some  modern  critics  would  have  us  attach  little 
importance  to  genuine  British  influence  on  the  development 
of  the  legend  of  Arthur.  For,  when  all  is  told,  Arthurian 
romance  owed  its  immense  popularity  in  the  thirteenth  century 
to  its  ideal  and  representative  character,  and  to  its  superior- 
ity over  the  other  stock  romantic  matters  as  a  point  de  repere 
for  every  kind  of  literary  excursion  and  adventure.  Thus, 
the  "matter  of  Britain"  very  quickly  became  international 
property — a  vast  composite  body  of  romantic  tradition,  which 
European  poets  and  story-tellers  of  every  nationality  drew 
upon  and  used  for  their  own  purposes.  The  British  king  himself 
faded  more  and  more  into  the  background,  and  became,  in  time, 
but  the  phantom  monarch  of  a  featureless  "land  of  faery,"  which 

None  that  breatheth  living  aire  doth  know. 

His  knights  quite  overshadow  him  in  the  later  romances ;  but 
they,  in  their  turn,  undergo  the  same  process  of  denational- 
isation, and  appear  as  natives  of  no  known  clime  or  country, 
moving  about  in  an  iridescent  atmosphere  of  fantasy  and 
illusion.  The  Arthurian  fairy-land  thus  became  a  neutral  ter- 
ritory— an  enchanted  land  where  the  seemingly  incompat- 
ible ideals  of  knight-errantry  and  the  church  were  reconciled, 
and  where  even  east  and  west  brought  their  spol'ls   together  as 

»  Dickinson,  King  Arthur  in  Cornwall  (Longmans,  1900),  preface,  p.  vi. 


2  72  The  Arthurian  Legend 

to  some  common  sanctuary.  "  Pilgrimage  and  the  holy  wars,  " 
writes  Gibbon,  "  introduced  into  Europe  the  specious  miracles 
of  Arabian  magic.  Fairies  and  giants,  flying  dragons  and 
enchanted  palaces,  were  blended  with  the  more  simple  fictions 
of  the  west;  and* he  fate  of  Britain  depended  on  the  art,  or  the 
predictions,  of  Merlin.  Every  nation  embraced  and  adorned 
the  popular  romance  of  Arthur  and  the  knights  of  the  Round 
Table;  their  names  were  celebrated  in  Greece  and  Italy;  and 
the  voluminous  tales  of  Sir  Lancelot  and  Sir  Tristram  were 
devoutly  studied  by  the  princes  and  nobles,  who  disregarded 
the  genuine  heroes  and  heroines  of  antiquity." 
^  Britain,  however,  claimed  the  titular  hero  of  the  legend ; 
anditwas^n  British  soil  that  the  full  flower  of  Arthurian 
romance  in  due  course  made  its  appearance.  Sir  Thomas 
Malory's  marvellous  compilation  superseded,  for  all  time,  each 
and  every  "  French  book"  which  went  to  its  making.  And,  as 
Caxton  takes  occasion  to  emphasise  in  his  preface  to  Malory's 
book,  Arthur,  as  the  "first  and  chief  of  the  three  best  Christ- 
ian kings"  of  the  world,  deserved  "most  to  be  remembered 
amongst  us  Englishmen."  It  so  happens,  however,  that  in 
our  own,  no  less  than  in  Caxton's,  time  "  divers  men  hold 
opinion  that  there  was  no  such  Arthur,  and  all  such  books  as 
been  made  of  him  be  but  feigned  and  fables."  There  is, 
indeed,  much  in  the  history  of  the  legend  to  justify  the  attitude 
of  these  sceptics.  The  first  great  outburst  of  the  popularity  of 
the  story  was  due  to  a  writer  who,  in  the  words  of  one  of  his 
earliest  critics,^  "  cloaked  fables  about  Arthur  under  the  honest 
name  of  history" — Geoffrey  of  Monmouth.  The  historical 
Arthur — assuming  that  Geoffrey  meant  all  that  he  wrote  about 
him  to  be  taken  as  authentic  fact — thus  made  his  first  consid- 
erable appearance  in  literature  under  very  dubious  auspices. 
The  "  British  book"  which  Geoffrey  professes  to  have  used  has 
never  been  discovered,  and  is  not  unreasonably  supposed  by 
many  to  have  been  a  myth.  Thus,  they  who  would  substan- 
tiate Caxton's  assertion  that  "  there  was  a  king  of  this  land 
called  Arthur"  have  to  produce  earlier,  and  more  authentic, 
evidence  than  an\^hing  furnished  by  Geoffrey. 

Old  English  literature,  even  the  Chronicle,  knows  absolutely 
nothing  of  Arthur.      Wales,  alone,  has  preserved  any  record  of 

J  William  of  Newburgh. 


Early  Welsh  Tradition  273 

his  name  and  fame  from  a  date  earlier  than  the  twelfth  century 
But  even  Welsh  writers  of  an  indisputably  early  date  tell  us 
very  little  about  him,  and  tell  that  little  in  a  tantalisingly 
casual  and  perfunctory  way.  Yet  it  is  in  a  few  obscure  Welsh 
poems,  in  one  very  remarkable  but  difficult  Welsh  prose  tale 
and  in  two  meagre  Latin  chronicles  compiled  in  Wales,  that  we 
discover  the  oldest  literary  records  of  both  the  historical  and 
the  legendary  Arthur.  A  few  stubborn  critics  still  maintain, 
against  the  opinion  of  the  best  Welsh  scholars,  that  the  Welsh 
works  in  question  are  not,  in  substance,  earlier  than  the  twelfth 
century — that,  in  other  w^ords,  they  contain  no  fragments  of 
Arthurian  lore  which  can  be  proved  to  be  older  than  the  date  of 
the  MSS.  in  which  they  are  preserved.  None,  however,  will  now 
dispute  the  approximate  dates  assigned  by  the  best  authori- 
ties to  Nennius  and  the  Annates  Cambriae;  and  it  is  in  the  two 
Latin  documents  bearing  these  names  that  we  have  the  earliest 
extant  records  of  a  seemingly  historical  Arthur. 

The  Historia  Brittonum,  commonly  ascribed  to  Nennius, 
is  a  curious  compilation,  which  was  put  into  its  present  form 
not  later  than  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century.  ^  About  the 
year  800  a  Welshman  named  Nennius — or,  to  use  the  nativ^e 
form,  Nynniaw — who  calls  himself  a  disciple  of  Elfod,  bishop  of 
Bangor  in  North  Wales, 2  copied  and  freely  edited  a  collection 
of  brief  notes,  gathered  from  various  sources,  on  early  British 
history  and  geography.  Nennius  claims,  in  his  preface,  after 
the  manner  of  his  kind,  to  be  an  original  compiler.  "  I  have," 
he  says,  "  gathered  together  all  I  could  find  not  only  in  the 
Roman  annals,  but  also  in  the  chronicles  of  holy  fathers,  .  .  . 
and  in  the  annals  of  the  Irish  and  English,  and  in  our  native 
traditions."  Elsewhere  he  avows  himself  a  mere  copyist,  and 
tells  us  that  he  wrote  "  the  '  Cities'  and  the  '  ]\Iar\^els'  of  Britain 
as  other  scribes  had  done  before  him."  Arthur  appears  in  both 
the  quasi-historical  and  the  purely  legendary  parts  of  Nennius 's 
compilation.  In  what  purports  to  be  the  strictly  historical 
part  of  his  narrative  Nennius  relates  how,  some  time  after  the 
death  of  Hengist,  Arthur  fought  against  the  English  along  with 

»  Zimmer  contends  {Nennius  Vindicatiis)  that  the  History  was  completed 
in  796.  Thurneysen  would  fix  the  year  826  as  the  date  of  its  completion 
(Zeitschrift  fitr  Deutsche  Philologie,  Halle,  1897). 

2  As  a  disciple  of  Elfod  (Elbodugus),  Nennius  must  have  Hved  about  800. 
His  History,  it  may  be  further  noted,  was  known  under  his  name  to  the  Irish 
scholar  Cormac  (831-903). 


274  The  Arthurian  Legend 

the  kings  of  the  Britons  and  "was  himself  their  war-leader" 
— ipse  dux  erat  bellorum — in  twelve  battles.^  In  the  eighth  of 
these  encounters,  at  the  castle  of  Guinnion,  "Arthur  bore  the 
image  of  the  holy  Virgin  Mary  oij  his  shoulders, ^  and  the  pagans 
were  put  to  flight  with  great  slaughter."  The  ninth  battle  was 
fought  at  the  City  of  Legions;  ^  the  twelfth,  and  last,  on  Mount 
Badon,  where  "  nine  hundred  and  sixty  men  fell  before  Arthur's 
single  onset — de  uno  impetu  Arthur.''  The  prominence  given, 
even  in  these  brief  notices,  to  Arthur's  individual  prowess  shows 
that  legend  was  already  busy  with  his  name.  The  Marvels 
of  Britain  gives  us  nothing  but  legend ;  here  Arthur  is  trans- 
lated altogether  into  the  realm  of  myth.  In  the  Welsh  district 
of  Buelt,*  we  are  told,  there  is  a  mound  of  stones,  on  the  top 
of  which  rests  a  stone  bearing  the  print  of  a  dog's  foot.  "  It 
was  when  he  was  hunting  the  boar  Troit  that  Cabal,  the  dog  of 
Arthur  the  warrior,  left  this  mark  upon  the  stone ;  and  Arthur 
afterwards  gathered  together  the  heap  of  stones  under  that 
which  bore  his  dog's  footprint,  and  called  it  Carn  Cabal." 
Here  we  discover  an  early  association  of  Arthurian  fable  with 
the  topography  of  Britain.  Another  "  Marvel "  tells  us  of  a  cer- 
tain stream  called  "the  source  of  the  Amir,"  which  was  so 
named  after  "Amir  the  son  of  Arthur  the  warrior,"  who  was 
buried  near  it.  The  allusion  to  the  hunting  of  the  boar  links 
Nennius'  narrative  with  what  is  probably  the  most  primitive 
of  all  the  Welsh  Arthurian  tales,  the  story  of  Kulhwch  and  01- 
wen.^  In  that  fantastic  fairy-tale  the  hunting  of  the  Twrch 
Trwyth,  which  is  Nennius's  porcus  Troit,  forms  one  of  the  chief 
incidents,  and  the  hound  Cabal  there  appears  under  his  Welsh 
name  of  Cavall. 

The  Welsh  monk  and  historian  Gildas  mentions  the  battle 
of  Mount  Badon  in  his  De  Excidio  et  Conquestu  Britanniae. 
That  battle,  according  to  Gildas,  was  signalised  by  "the  last, 
almost,  though  not  the  least,  slaughter  of  our  cruel  foes,  and 

'  Hist.  Brit.,  ch.  lvi. 

2  Cf.  Wordsworth,  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets,  i,  lo: 

"Amazement  runs  before  the  towering  casque 
Of  Arthur,  bearing  through  the  stormy  field 
The  Virgin  sculptured  on  his  Christian  shield." 

3  Caerleon,  or  Caerlleon,  upon  Usk — a  city  to  which   Geoifrey  of  Mon- 
mouth, probably  from  interested  motives,  gives  great  prominence. 

*  Builth  (modern  Welsh,  Buallt). 

5  Included  in  Lady  Charlotte  Guest's  Mahinogion. 


Gildas  275 

that  was  (I  am  sure)  forty-four  years  and  one  month  after  the 
landing  of  the  Saxons,  and  also  the  time  of  my  own  nativity." 
But  Gildas  makes  no  allusion  at  all  to  Arthur's  feats  in  the 
battle.  Neither  does  he  once  mention  his  name  in  connection 
with  the  general  struggle  which  he  describes  as  being  carried 
on,  with  varying  fortune,  against  the  English.  The  only  leader 
of  the  British  in  that  warfare  whom  Gildas  deems  worthy  of 
notice  is  Ambrosius  Aurelianus,^  the  last  of  the  Romans,  "a 
modest  man,  who  alone  of  all  his  race  chanced  to  survive  the 
shock  of  so  great  a  storm"  as  then  broke  over  Britain.  The 
silence  of  Gildas,  who  was,  presumably,  a  contemporary  of  the 
historical  Arthur,  would  be  significant,  were  it  not  that  he  is 
equally  reticent  about  the  achievements  of  every  other  native 
British  chieftain.  Gildas  belonged  to  the  Roman  party  in  the 
Britain  of  his  time,  and  to  exalt  the  prowess  of  any  British 
prince  would  ill  assort  with  his  pious  lamentations  over  the 
absolute  degeneracy  of  his  race. 

The  battle  of  Mount  Badon,  together  with  another  which 
was  destined  to  overshadow  it  completely  in  the  later  develop- 
ments of  Arthurian  story,  is  recorded,  and  dated,  in  Annates 
Camhriae — the  oldest  extant  MS.  of  which  was  compiled,  prob- 
ably, in  the  second  half  of  the  tenth  century. ^  There,  under 
the  year  516,  we  read:  "Battle  of  Badon,  in  which  Arthur 
carried  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  on  his  shoulders,  and 
the  Britons  were  victors."  The  reference  to  the  carrying  of 
the  cross  is,  of  course,  an  obvious  echo  of  the  tradition  recorded 
by  Nennius  about  the  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary — either,  or  both, 
being  doubtless  the  device  borne  by  Arthur  on  his  shield.^     Of 

'  Ambrosius,  transformed  by  Geoffrey  into  Aurelius  Ambrosius  (cf. 
Tennyson,  Coming  of  Arthur,  "For  first  Aurelius  lived,  and  fought  and  died  "), 
is  known  in  Welsh  literature  as  Emrys  Wledig.  He  appears  in  Nennius  as 
Embreis  Guletic.  Guletic,  or  Gwledig,  means  "over-lord,"  or  "king,"  and 
Arthur  himself  would  seem  to  bear  this  title  in  a  Welsh  poem  in  The  Book  of 
Taliesin  (No.  xv).     See  Skene,  Four  Ancient  Books  of  Wales,  vol.  i,  p.  227. 

2  The  most  likely  date  is  954  or  955.  See  Phillimore's  edition  in  Y 
Cymmrodor,  vol.  ix,  p.  144. 

3  It  is  worth  noting,  as  bearing  upon  the  Welsh  origin  of  this  tradition, 
that  the  old  Welsh  word  for  "shield,"  iscuit,  would  be  spelt  in  exactly  the 
same  way  as  the  word  for  "shoulder."  Both  Nennius  and  the  writer  of  the 
Annals  appear  to  have  misread  it.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  attempts  to  put 
the  matter  right  (Hist,  ix,  ch.  iv)  in  describing  Arthur  as  having  "on  his 
shoulders  a  shield  "  bearing  the  Virgin's  image;  but  he,  also,  confuses  Welsh 
tradition  in  giving  to  the  shield  the  name  of  Arthur's  ship,  Priwen  or  Pridwen. 


276  The  Arthurian  Legend 

greater  interest  is  the  second  entry  in  the  Annals.  In  the 
year  537  was  fought  "the  battle  of  Camlan,  in  which  Arthur 
and  Medraut  fell."  Medraut  is  the  Modred,  or  Mordred,  of 
romance.  The  Annals  tell  nothing  more  about  him;  but  in  this 
bare  record  lies  the  germ  of  the  first  of  the  tragic  motives  of 
subsequent  Arthurian  story.  Camlan  is  "  the  dim,  weird  battle 
of  the  west,"  where  Arthur  met  "the  traitor  of  his  house,"  and 

at  one  blow, 
Striking  the  last  stroke  with  Excalibur, 
Slew  him,  and,  all  but  slain  himself,  he  fell. 

From  these  meagre  notices  of  the  early  Latin  annalists  of 
Wales  we  pass  to  such  Arthurian  traditions  as  are  found  em- 
bodied in  the  songs  of  the  oldest  Welsh  bards.  This,  indeed,  is 
a  perilous  quest,  for  it  is  beset  with  difficult  problems  of  his- 
torical and  textual  criticism  upon  which  scholarship  is  still  far 
from  saying  its  last  word.  It  may,  however,  be  premised  with 
^§me  confidence  that  there  lived  in  Wales,  in  the  sixth  and 
seventh  centuries,  several  bards  of  note,  of  whom  the  best 
known  by  name  are  Llywarch  Hen,  Taliesin  and  Aneirin.  The 
compositions  attributed  to  these,  and  other  bards  of  this  early 
period,  are  found  in  MSS.  the  dates  of  which  range  from  the 
twelfth  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  centuries.  The  oldest  of 
all  the  MSS.  is  that  known  as  The  Black  Book  of  Carmarthen, 
compiled  during  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  the 
period  to  which  also  belongs  the  oldest  known  MS.  of  Welsh 
prose,  that  of  the  Venedotian  code  of  the  laws  of  Wales.  The 
Book  of  Aneirin,  which  contains  the  famous  Gododin,  is  the  next 
oldest  MS.,  and  is  probably  to  be  assigned  to  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury. To  the  thirteenth  century,  also,  belongs  The  Book  of 
Taliesin,  while  another  famous  MS.,  The  Red  Book  of  Hergest, 
dates  from  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  These  "four 
ancient  books"  ^  constitute,  together,  our  chief  available  re- 
pertory of  the  early  poetry  of  the  Kymry. 

Amid  much  that  is  undeniably  late  and  spurious,  these  col- 
lections of  Welsh  poetry  contain  a  good  deal  that  is,  in  sub- 
stance, of  obviously  archaic  origin.  In  many  of  these  poems 
there  is,  in  words  applied  by  Matthew  Arnold  to  the  prose 

»  The  Four  Ancient  Books  of  Wales  is  the  title  under  which  the  poems  in 
these  MSS.  were  published,  with  translations  and  copious  dissertations,  by 
W.  F.  Skene  (Edinburgh,  li 


Early  Welsh  Poetry  ^11 

Mabinogion,  "a  detritus,  as  the  geologists  would  say,  of  some- 
thing far  older";  and  their  secret  is  not  to  be  "truly  reached 
until  this  detritus,  instead  of  being  called  recent  because  it  is 
found  in  contact  with  what  is  recent,  is  disengaged,  and  is  made 
to  tell  its  own  story."  ^  Nowhere,  however,  is  this  detritus  more 
difficult  to  disengage  than  in  the  few  poems  in  which  Arthur's 
name  appears.  The  most  celebrated  of  these  early  Welsh  bards 
know  nothing  of  Arthur.  Llywarch  Hen  and  Taliesin  never 
mention  him;  to  them  Urien,  lord  of  Rheged,  is  by  far  the  most 
imposing  figure  among  all  the  native  warriors  who  fought 
against  the  English.  It  is  Urien  with  whom  "all  the  bards 
of  the  world  find  favour,"  and  to  whom  "they  ever  sing  after 
his  desire."  ^  Neither  is  Arthur  known  to  Aneirin,  who  sang 
in  his  Gododin  the  elegy  of  the  Kymric  chieftains  who  met 
their  doom  at  Cattraeth.  "  There  are  only  five  poems, "  writes 
Skene, ^  "which  mention  Arthur  at  all,  and  then  it  is  the  his- 
torical Arthur,  the  Gwledig,  to  whom  the  defence  of  the  wall^ 
entrusted,  and  who  fights  the  twelve  battles  in  the  north  and 
finally  perishes  at  Camlan."  This  is  not  a  quite  accurate  sum- 
mary of  the  facts;  for  these  poems,  while  pointing  to  the  exis- 
tence of  a  historical  Arthur,  embody  also  a  detritus  of  pure 
myth. 

The  most  significant,  perhaps,  of  all  these  references  to 
Arthur  in  early  Welsh  poetry  is  that  already  quoted  from  the 
Stanzas  of  the  Graves  in  The  Black  Book  of  Carmarthen.  The 
mystery  surrounding  his  grave  at  once  suggests  the  existence 
of  a  belief  in  his  return,  and  William  of  Malmesbury,  as  w^e  have 
seen,  knew,  early  in  the  twelfth  century,  of  "ancient  songs" 
which  kept  this  belief  alive.  The  currency  of  such  a  tradition, 
not  only  in  Wales,  but  in  Cornwall  and  Brittany,  at  the  very 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  is  proved  by  an  account  given 
by  certain  monks  of  Laon  of  a  tumult  caused  at  Bodmin  in 
the  year  1113  by  the  refusal  of  one  of  their  number  to  admit 
that  Arthur  still  lived.*  Another  of  the  Stanzas  of  the  Graves 
is  significant,  as  containing  an  allusion  both  to  the  battle 
of  Camlan  and  to  "the  latest-left  of  all"  Arthur's  knights, 
Bedwyr,  or  Bedivere,  who  shares  with  Kai,  or  Kay,  the  pre- 

'  On  the  Study  of  Celtic  Literature. 
^  Book  of  Taliesi}},  xl  (Skene,  vol.  ii,  p.  i86). 
3  Four  Ancient  Books  of  Wales,  vol.  i.  p.  226. 
*  See  Migne,  Patrologia,  156,  col.  983. 


278  The  Arthurian  Legend 

eminence  among  Arthur's  followers  in  the  primitive  Welsh 
fragments  of  Arthurian  fable : 

The  grave  of  the  son  of  Osvran  is  at  Camlan, 

After  many  a  slaughter; 

The  grave  of  Bedwyr  is  on  the  hiU  of  Tryvan. 

\  Bedwyr  and  Kai  appear  together  in  Kulhwch  and  Olwen;  they  are 
there  once  met  with,  for  example,  on  the  top  of  Plynlimmon 
' '  in  the  greatest  wind  that  ever  was  in  the  world."  "  Bedwyr," 
the  same  story  tells  us,  "never  shrank  from  any  enterprise 
upon  which  Kai  was  bound."  The  pair  were  united  even  in 
their  death,  for,  in  Geoffrey's  History,  they  perish  together 
in  the  first  great  battle  with  the  Romans.  Another  of  Arthur's 
knights  figures  as  the  hero  of  an  entire  poem  in  The  Black  Book 
— Gereint,  the  son  of  Erbin.^  In  this  poem  Arthur  is  repre- 
sented as  the  leader  of  a  number  of  warriors,  of  whom  Gereint 
is  the  most  valiant,  fighting  at  a  place  called  Llongborth:^ 

%  At  Llongborth  saw  I  of  Arthur's 

Brave  men  hewing  with  steel, 
(Men  of  the)  emperor,  director  of  toil. 

At  Llongborth  there  fell  of  Gereint "s 
Brave  men  from  the  borders  of  Devon, 
And,  ere  they  were  slain,  they  slew. 

Here  we  find  Arthur  in  much  the  same  role  as  that  of  the  dux 
bellorum  of  Nennius,  or  the  comes  Britanniae,  who  held  "the 
place  of  the  imperator  himself,  when  Britain  ceased  to  be  part 
of  the  dominions  of  Rome."^ 

Arthur,  however,  appears  in  a  distinctly  different  character 
in  yet  another  poem  included  in  The  Black  Book.  In  Kulhwch 
and  Olwen,  one  of  Arthur's  chief  porters  answers  to  the  fear- 
some name  of  Glewlwyd  Gavaelvawr,  or  Glewlwyd  of  the 
Mighty  Grasp.  The  Black  Book  poem  is  cast  in  the  form  of  a 
dialogue  between  him  and  Arthur.  Glewlwyd  would  seem, 
in  the  poem,  to  have  a  castle  of  his  own,  from  the  gates  of 
which  he  questions  Arthur  about  himself  and  his  followers. 
The  description  given  of  them  by  Arthur  is  noteworthy  as 

»  Gereint,  the  Son  of  Erbin  is  also  the  title  of  the  Welsh  prose  romance 
which  corresponds,  in  its  main  features,  to  Chretien  de  Troyes's  Erec. 

2  Supposed  by  some  to  be  Portsmouth.  The  Welsh  name  simply  means 
"ship's  port." 

3  Rhys,. preface  to  Dent's  edition  of  Malory,  p.  xxv. 


Early  Welsh  Poetry  279 

pointing  to  the  existence  of  an  early  tradition  which  made  him 
the  head  of  a  sort  of  military  court,  and  foreshadows,  in  a  rude 
way,  the  fellowship  of  the  Round  Table.  Several  of  the  names 
found  in  it  connect  this  curious  poem  with  Kulhwch  and  Olwen. 
The  first,  and  the  doughtiest,  of  Arthur's  champions  is  "the 
worthy  Kei "  (Kai).  "Vain  were  it  to  boast  against  Kei  in 
battle,"  sings  the  bard ;  "  when  from  a  horn  he  drank,  he  drank 
as  much  as  four  men;  when  he  came  into  battle,  he  slew  as 
would  a  hundred ;  unless  it  were  God's  doing,  Kei's  death  would 
be  unachieved." 

Arthur  recedes  still  further  into  the  twilight  of  myth  in  the 
only  other  old  Welsh  poem  where  any  extended  allusion  is 
made  to  him.  The  poem  in  question  is  found  in  The  Book  of 
Taliesin,  and  is  called  Preideu  Annwvn,  or  the  Harrowings  of 
Hell.  This  is  just  one  of  those  weird  mythological  poems 
which  are  very  difficult  to  interpret,  and  where,  again  to  quote 
Matthew  Arnold,  the  author  "is  pillaging  an  antiquity  ^ 
which  he  does  not  fully  possess  the  secret."  Here  Arthur  sets 
out  upon  various  expeditions  over  perilous  seas  in  his  ship 
Pridwen;  one  of  them  had  as  its  object  the  rape  of  a  mysterious 
cauldron  belonging  to  the  king  of  Hades.  "  Three  freights  of 
Pridwen,''  says  the  bard,  "  were  they  who  went  out  with  Arthur ; 
seven  alone  were  they  who  returned"  from  Caer  Sidi,  Caer 
Rigor  and  the  other  wholly  unidentified  places  whither  they 
fared.  It  is  in  this  poem  that  the  closest  parallels  of  all  are 
found  with  incidents  described  in  the  story  of  Kulhwch  and 
Olwen,  and,  as  a  whole,  it  "  evidently  deals  with  expeditions 
conducted  by  Arthur  by  sea  to  the  realms  of  twilight  and  dark- 
ness." ^  But  here  the  British  king  is  much  further  removed 
than  in  Kulhwch  from  any  known  country,  and  appears  as  a 
purel}^  mythical  hero  with  supernatural  attributes. 

The  most  remarkable  fragment — for  the  tale  as  we  have  it 
is  an  obvious  torso — of  all  the  early  Welsh  literature  about 
Arthur  that  has  come  down  to  us  is  the  prose  romance  of 
Kulhwch  and  Olwen.  The  oldest  extant  text  of  it  is  that  of 
the  early  fourteenth  century  IMS.  known  as  The  White  Book  of 
Rhyderch,^   where  we  find  many  remarkable  archaisms  which 

•  Rhys,  preface  to  Dent's  Malory,  p.  xxxiv,  where  the  poem's  corre- 
spondences with  Kulhwch  are  pointed  out. 

2  In  the  Peniarth  Library.  Gwenogvryn  Evans  has  an  edition  of  this 
MS.  in  preparation. 


28o  Xhe  Arthurian  Legend 

have  been  modernised  in  the  version  of  The  Red  Book  of  Hergest; 
but  the  original  form  of  the  story  is  assigned,  by  the  most  com- 
petent authorities,  to  the  tenth  century.  ^  It  is  included  in 
Lady  Charlotte  Guest's  translation  of  the  Mahinogion;  and,  as 
that  translation  largely  contributed  to  the  fashioning  of  the 
most  popular  presentment  of  Arthurian  romance  in  modern 
English  poetry,  a  brief  account  of  the  entire  series  of  these 
Welsh  tales  may  here  be  appropriately  given.  All  the  tales 
translated  by  Lady  Guest  are  taken  from  The  Red  Book  of 
Hergest,  with  the  exception  of  The  History  of  Taliesin.  Talie- 
sin,^  in  the  form  we  have  it,  is  a  compilation  of  obviously  late 
medieval  origin,  and  it  is  not  found  in  any  MS.  of  an  earlier 
date  than  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  name  Mab- 
inogion  belongs,  strictly  speaking,  to  only  four  of  the  twelve 
stories  included  in  Lady  Guest's  book.  Each  of  these  four 
tales  is  called  in  Welsh  "ceinc  y  Mabinogi,"  which  means  "a 
branch  of  the  Mabinogi ' ' ;  and  the  correct  title  for  the  group 
smDuld  be  "the  four  branches  of  the  Mabinogi."  The  term 
mabinogi  signifies  "  a  tale  of  youth,"  or  "  a  tale  for  the  young." 
The  "four  branches"  are  the  tales  known  as  Pwyll,  prince  of 
Dyved;  Branwen,  daughter  of  Llyr;  Manawydan,  son  of  Llyr; 
and  Math,  son  of  Mathonwy.  They  contain  what  is  probably 
the  most  archaic  body  of  Welsh  tradition  in  existence,  are 
largely,  if  not  entirely,  mythological  in  character  and  suggest 
many  points  of  analogy  with  the  mythic  tales  of  Ireland.^ 
They  deal,  mainly,  with  the  fortunes  of  three  great  families, 
the  children  of  Don,  the  children  of  Llyr  and  the  family  of 
Pwyll.  In  these  stories,  the  Mabinogion  proper,  Arthur  does 
not  appear  at  all. 

Of  the  other  tales,  two — The  Dream  of  Maxen  Wledig  and 
Llnd  and  Llevelys — are  brief  romantic  excursions  into  the 
domain  of  British  ancient  history,  later  in  date,  probably,  than 
Geoffrey's  Historia.  Arthur  does  not  figure  in  either.  The 
remaining  five  tales,  however,  are  all  Arthurian,  but  form  two 
distinct  groups.  In  Kulhwch  and  Olwen  and  The  Dream  of 
Rhonabwy  we  have  two  Arthurian  stories  of  apparently  pure 

1  Rhys,  Dent's  Malory,  p.  xxxiv. 

2  Thomas  Love  Peacock  drew  most  of  his  matter  for  The  Misfortunes  of 
Elphin  from  this  tale. 

i  For  a  suggestive  analysis  of  the  probable  origins  and  mythological  sig- 
nificance of  the  "four  branches,"  see  Rhys,  Celtic  Folk-lore,  vol.  ii. 


The  "Mablnogion"  281 

British  origin,  in  which  Arthur  is  presented  in  a  milieu  alto- 
gether unaffected  by  the  French  romances.  The  second  and 
better  known  group,  consisting  of  the  three  tales  entitled  The 
Lady  of  the  Fountain,  Geraint,  son  of  Erbin,  and  Peredur,  son 
of  Evrawc,  are  romances  palpably  based  upon  French  origi- 
nals. They  correspond,  respectively,  in  their  main  features,  to 
Chretien  de  Troyes's  Le  chevalier  an  lion,  Erec  and  Le  conte  del 
Graal.  ^ 

The  Mabinogion,  as  a  whole,  are  the  most  artistic  and 
delightful  expression  of  the  early  Celtic  genius  which  we  possess. 
Nowhere  else  do  we  come  into  such  close  touch  with  the  real 
"Celtic  magic,"  with  the  true  enchanted  land,  where  "the 
eternal  illusion  clothes  itself  in  the  most  seductive  hues."^ 
Composed  though  they  were  in  all  probability  by  a  professional 
literary  class,  these  stories  are  distinguished  by  a  naive  charm 
which  suggests  an3rthing  but  an  artificial  literary  craftsmanship. 
The  supernatural  is  treated  in  them  as  the  most  natural  thine^ 
in  the  world,  and  the  personages  who  possess  magic  gifts  are 
made  to  move  about  and  speak  and  behave  as  perfectly  normal 
human  creatures.  The  simple  grace  of  their  narrative,  their 
delicacy  and  tenderness  of  sentiment  and,  above  all,  their 
feeling  for  nature,  distinguish  these  tales  altogether  from  the 
elaborate  productions  of  the  French  romantic  schools;  while 
in  its  lucid  precision  of  form,  and  in  its  admirable  adaptation 
to  the  matter  with  which  it  deals,  no  medieval  prose  surpasses 
that  of  the  Welsh  of  the  Mabinogion.  These  traits  are  what 
make  it  impossible  to  regard  even  the  later  Welsh  Arthurian 
stories  as  mere  imitations  of  Chretien's  poems.  Their  charac- 
ters and  incidents  may  be,  substantially,  the  same ;  but  the  tone, 
the  atmosphere,  the  entire  artistic  setting  of  the  Welsh  tales 
are  altogether  different;  and  "neither  Chretien  nor  Marie  de 
France,  nor  any  other  French  writer  of  the  time,  whether  in 
France  or  England,  can  for  one  moment  compare  with  the 
Welshmen  as  story-tellers  pure  and  simple."  ^  .  ^ 

•  Le  Conte  del  Graal  is  only  in  part  the  work  of  Chretien.        ^* 

2  Renan,  The  Poetry  of  the  Celtic  Races.      (Trans.  Hutchinson.) 

3  A.  Nutt,  in  his  edition  of  Lady  C.  Guest's  Mabinogion,  p.  352.  Cf. 
Renan:  "The  charm  of  the  Mabinogion  principally  resides  in  the  amiable 
serenity  of  the  Celtic  mind,  neither  sad  nor  gay,  ever  in  suspense  between  a 
smile  and  a  tear.  We  have  in  thsm  the  simple  recital  of  a  child,  unwitting 
of  any  distinction  between  the  noble  and  the  common;  there  is  something 
of  that  softly  animated  world,  of  that  calm  and  tranquil  ideal  to  which 


V- 


282  The  Arthurian  Legend 

Kulhwch  and  Olwen,  however,  is  the  only  one  of  these  tales 
that  need  detain  us  here,  embodying,  as  it  does,  in  common 
with  the  Welsh  poems  already  quoted,  Arthurian  traditions  far 
transcending  in  age  the  appearance  of  the  Arthur  of  chivalry. 
Here,  as  Matthew  Arnold  has  said  in  an  oft-quoted  passage, 
the  story-teller  "  is  like  a  peasant  building  his  hut  on  the  site  of 
Halicamassus  or  Ephesus;  he  builds,  but  what  he  builds  is 
full  of  materials  of  which  he  knows  not  the  history,  or  knows 
by  a  glimmering  tradition  merely — stones  'not  of  this  building,' 
but  of  an  older  architecture,  greater,  cunninger,  more  majesti- 
cal."  The  main  theme  of  the  story  is  the  wooing  of  Olwen,  the 
daughter  of  Yspadaden  Pen  Kawr,  by  Kulhwch,  the  son  of 
Kilyd,  and  the  long  series  of  labours  imposed  upon  the  suitor 
in  order  to  gain  her  hand.  Olwen  appears  to  have  been  well 
worth  the  arduous  quest,  for  "her  skin  was  whiter  than  the 
foam  of  the  wave,  and  fairer  were  her  hands  and  her  fingers  than 
the  blossoms  of  the  wood  anemone  amidst  the  spray  of  the 
meadow  fountain,"  and  "four  white  trefoils  sprung  up  wher- 
ever she  trod."  Arthur  appears,  here,  not  as  the  ideal  Brit- 
ish warrior,  nor  as  the  hope  and  future  restorer  of  his  race,  but 
as  a  fairy  king,  overcoming  uncouth  and  monstrous  enemies 
by  his  own  and  his  followers'  magic.  All  the  same,  he  is  the 
lord  of  what  is  to  the  story-teller,  in  many  places,  a  very  de- 
terminate realm;  for  one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of 
Kulhwch  and  Olwen,  as  compared  with  the  later  Arthurian 
tales,  is  the  precision  of  its  topography.  The  route  of  the 
boar-hunt,  for  example — or  the  hunting  of  the  Twrch  Trwyth 
— may  be  traced  without  much  difficulty,  on  our  maps.^ 

Even  more  remarkable,  however,  than  the  topographical 
detail  of  the  story  is  the  congeries  of  fabulous  and  fantastic 
names  grouped  in  it  around  the  central  figure  of  Arthur.  This 
feature,  suggesting  as  it  does  the  Arthurian  court  of  the  age  of 
chivalry,  might  be  taken  as  evidence  of  the  late  i-edaction  of 
the  tale  as  we  have  it,  were  it  not  that  the  story-teller  gives 
details  about  most  of  these  strange  characters  which  are  evi- 
dently drawn  from  the  remnants  of  some  lost  saga.     Arthur 

Ariosto's  stanzas  transport  us.  The  chatter  of  the  later  medieval  French 
and  German  imitators  can  give  no  idea  of  this  charming  manner  of  narra- 
tion. The  skilful  Chretien  de  Troyes  himself  remains  in  this  respect  far  be- 
low the  Welsh  story-tellers."      The  Poetry  of  the  Celtic  Races. 

»  See  Rhys's  account  of  the  hunt  in  Celtic  Folk-lore,  vol.  11,  p.  572. 


"Kulhwch  and  OKven"  283 

himself  is  introduced  to  us  in  his  palace,  or  hall,  called  Ehang- 
wen,  and  thither  Kulhwch  comes  to  crave  his  help  to  obtain 
Olwen;  "and  this  boon  I  likewise  seek,"  says  Kulhwch,  "at 
the  hands  of  thy  warriors."  These  warriors  Kulhwch  then 
proceeds  to  name  in  seemingly  interminable  succession.  First 
in  the  long  and  weird  list  come  Kai  and  Bedwyr;  others  well 
known  to  early  Welsh  tradition  include  Gwynn  and  Edern, 
the  sons  of  Nud,  Geraint,  the  son  of  Erbin,  Taliesin,  the  chief  of 
bards,  Manawydan,  the  son  of  Llyr.  But,  among  the  company, 
there  also  appear  several  grotesque  figures  of  whom  nothing 
is  known  save  what  the  story-teller  himself,  giving  rein,  as 
it  would  seem,  to  a  deliberately  mischievous  humour,  briefly 
records.  Thus  we  have,  for  example,  one  Sol,  who  "could 
stand  all  day  upon  one  foot" ;  Gwevyl,  the  son  of  Gwestad,  who 
"  on  the  day  he  was  sad,  would  let  one  of  his  lips  drop  below 
his  waist,  while  he  turned  up  the  other  like  a  cap  upon  his 
head  ";  Clust,  the  son  of  Clustveinad,  who,  "though  he  were 
buried  seven  cubits  beneath  the  earth,  would  hear  the  ant 
fifty  miles  off  rise  from  her  nest  in  the  morning."  Even  famil- 
iar Arthurian  heroes,  like  Kai,  are  dowered  with  superhuman 
powers.  "  Kai  had  this  peculiarity,  that  his  breath  lasted 
nine  nights  and  days  under  water,  and  he  could  exist  nine 
nights  and  nine  days  without  sleep."  "Very  subtle  was  Kai; 
when  it  pleased  him  he  could  make  himself  as  tall  as  the  highest 
tree  in  the  forest."  We  are  remote,  indeed,  in  such  company 
as  this,  from  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table,  but  we  are  not  so 
remote  from  the  fairy  world  depicted  in  the  "  Four  Branches  of 
the  Mabinogi."  ^Thp  rnnr1ns;inr|  to  which  Kulhwch  and  Olwen, 
and  the  few  poems  which  mention  Arthur,  clearly  point  is  that 
the  British  king  was  far  better  known  to  early  Welsh  tradition 
as  a  mythic  hero  than  as  the  champion  of  the  Britons  in  their 
wars  w4th  the  English.  There  may  have  been  a  historical 
Arthur  who  was  a  comes  Britanniae,  or  a  dux  bellorum,  of  the 
sixth  century,  and  his  name,  "  re-echoed  by  the  topography  of 
the  country  once  under  his  protection,"  may  have  "gathered 
round  it  legends  of  heroes  and  divinities  of  a  past  of  indefinite 
extent."  ^  What  we  do,  however,  know,  is  that  the  Arthur 
who  emerges  out  of  the  mists  of  Celtic  tradition  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  twelfth  century  is  an  entirely  imaginary  being,  a 

1  Rhys,  preface  to  Dent's  Malory  p.  xxxvi. 


284  The  Arthurian  Legend 

king  of  fairy-land,  undertaking  hazardous  quests,  slaying 
monsters,  visiting  the  realms  of  the  dead,  and  having  at  his 
call  a  number  of  knightly  henchmen,  notably  Kay  and  Bedivere, 
who  are  all  but  his  equals  in  wizardry  and  martial  prowess. 
This  mythical  Arthur — the  creation  of  a  primitive  imagina- 
tion altogether  unaffected  by  the  sophisticated  conceptions  of 
chivalry  and  of  conscious  dealers  in  romantic  literary  wares — 
belongs  to  early  Welsh  literature  alone. 

The  transformation  of  the  Welsh,  or  British,  Arthur  into  a 
romantic  hero  of  European  renown  was  the  result  of  the  con- 
tact of  Norman  culture  and,  as  it  would  seem,  Norman  diplo- 
macy, with  the  Celtic  races  of  the  west.  It  was  doubtless  from 
Brittany,  rather  than  from  Wales,  that  the  Normans  derived 
their  first  knowledge  of  the  Arthurian  stories.  Indeed,  it  is 
probable  that  the  nameless  story-tellers  of  Brittany  fastened 
upon,  and  expanded,  a  number  of  popular  traditions  which 
prefigured  the  Arthur  of  romance  much  more  clearly  than  any- 
thing told  or  written  in  Wales.  The  Armorican  "Bretons" 
are  probably  those  whom  Wace  mentions  as  "  telling  many  a 
fable  of  the  Table  Round."  ^  In  Brittany,  also,  a  belief  in  Ar- 
thur's return  must  long  have  been  current,  for  Alanus  de  In- 
sulis  records  that  a  denial  of  it  in  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth 
century  would  be  likely  to  cost  a  man  his  life  in  the  country 
districts  of  Brittany.  2  By  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury the  relations  between  the  duchy  of  Normandy  and  the 
Bretons  had  become  particularly  close,  and  the  duke  of 
Brittany  was  one  of  William  the  Conqueror's  staunchest  allies 
at  the  time  of  the  invasion  of  Britain. 

It  is  not,  however,  to  Brittany  that  the  great  Latin  ex- 
ploitation of  the  legend  of  Arthur,  under  Norman  auspices, 
belongs,  but  to  a  section  of  Great  Britain  where  the  Norman 
conquerors  had,  very  rapidly,  succeeded  in  establishing  inti- 
mate relations  with  the  Welsh.  By  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century  the  Normans  had  effected  a  firm  settlement 
in  South  Wales.  Now,  it  happens  that  it  was  a  writer  asso- 
ciated, at  least  by  name,  with  the  South  Wales  border,  and 
claiming  the  patronage  of  a  princely  Norman  who  held  that 
part  of  the  country  in  fee,  who,  most  of  all,  is  entitled  to  be 

'  Roman  de  Brut,  1.  9994. 

2  Prophetia  Anglicana,  etc.  (Frankfort,  1603),  Bk.  i,  p.  17. 


Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  285 

called  the  literary  father  of  Arthurian  romance.  Robert,  earl 
of  Gloucester,  and  a  natural  son  of  Henry  I — for  there  is  no 
evidence  in  support  of  the  tradition  that  his  mother  was  the 
beautiful  Nest,  the  daughter  of  the  Welsh  prince  Rhys  ap 
Tewdwr — acquired,  early  in  the  twelfth  century,  the  lordship 
of  Glamorgan  by  marriage  with  Mabel,  daughter  of  Robert 
Fitz-hamon,  conqueror  of  Glamorgan.  Robert,  like  his  father, 
was  a  liberal  and  a  diplomatic  patron  of  letters.  It  was  to 
him  that  William  of  Malmesbury,  the  greatest  historian  of  his 
time,  dedicated  his  History.  To  him  was  due  the  foundation 
of  the  abbey  of  Margam,  whose  chronicle  is  a  valuable  early 
authority  for  the  history  of  Wales.  On  his  estates  at  Torigni 
was  born  Robert  de  Monte,  abbot  of  Mont  St.  Michel,  a  chron- 
icler of  renown,  and  a  lover  and  student  of  Breton  legends. 
Above  all,  it  was  under  his  immediate  patronage  that  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth  compiled  his  romantic  History  of  the  Kings  of 
Britain. 

Of  Geoffrey's  personal  history  we  know  little.  His  full 
name  appears  to  have  been,  significantly,  Geoffrey  Arthur. 
His  relentless  critic,  William  of  Newburgh,  takes  "Arthur"  to 
have  been  a  by-name  given  to  him  on  the  score  of  his  Arthurian 
fabrications';  but  the  truth  probably  is  that  Arthur  was  the 
name  of  his  father.  ^  His  connection  with  Monmouth  is  ob- 
scure; he  may  have  been  born  in  the  town,  or  educated  at  the 
priory  founded  there  by  the  Breton,  W^ihenoc.  He  was  never, 
as  he  is  commonly  designated,  archdeacon  of  Monmouth,  for 
there  was  no  such  archdeaconry  in  existence.  Whether  he  was 
by  descent  a  Breton,  or  a  Welshman,  we  fcnow  no  more  than 
we  do  whether  the  famous  "British  book,"  which  he  professes 
to  have  used,  was  derived  from  Wales  or  from  Brittany. 
Neither  matter  is  of  much  consequence.  The  "British  book" 
may  very  well  have  been  an  authentic  document,  since  lost, 
which  was  placed,  as  he  tells  us,  at  his  disposal  by  his  friend 
Walter,  archdeacon  of  Oxford.  Much  Welsh  and  Breton  folk- 
lore doubtless  reached  him  through  monastic  channels.  Nen- 
nius  and  Bede  furnished  him  with  matter  which  can  be  clearly 
traced  in  his  text. 2     There  can  be  little  doubt,  however,  that 

'  His  name  is  given  as  Gaufridus  Arturus  in  the  list  of  witnesses  to  the  foun- 
dation charter  of  the  abbey  of  Osney  in  1 1 29.  See  Dugdale,  Monasticon,  vi,  p. 
251,  and  Sir  F.  Madden  in  Journal  of  the  Archceological  Institute,  1858,  p.  305. 

^  A  full,  and  most  suggestive,  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  of  Geoffrey's 


-ft* 


286  The  Arthurian  Legend 

the  main  source  of  the  Arthurian  portions  of  his  History  was 
Geoffrey's  own  imagination.  [The  floating  popular  traditions 
about  Arthur,  and  the  few  documents  which  he  had  to  his 
hand,  plainly  suggested  to  him  the  possibilities  of  developing 
a  new  and  striking  romantic  theme.  Geoffrey  appears  to 
have  gauged  the  tastes  and  fancies  of  the  courtly  readers  of  his 
day  with  an  astuteness  worthy  of  a  Defoe.  Romance  was  in 
demand,  and  Geoffrey,  giving  the  rein  to  his  faculty  for  deco- 
rative and  rhetorical  writing,  responded  to  that  demand  with 
an  address  that  would  have  done  credit  to  the  most  alert  of 
modern  novelists."  The  time-honoured  vehicle  of  the  chronicle 
was  turned  to  new  and  unexpected  uses.  Sober  and  orthodox 
:!i^  chroniclers,  like  William  of  Malmesbury  and  Henry  of  Hunting- 
don, are  deliberately  warned  off  the  ground  thus  opened  out 
for  the  poet  and  the  romancer.  The  "kings  of  the  Saxons" 
were  their  legitimate  subject;  the  "kings  of  the  Britons"  were 
outside  their  province,  for  "the  British  book"  was  to  them  a 
sealed  volume.  ^ 

Geoffrey's  relation  to  the  Latin  chroniclers  of  his  time  is 
dealt  with  in  another  chapter;  here,  his  contributions  to 
Arthurian  story  alone  claim  our  attention.  The  glorification 
of  Arthur  in  the  History  lends  some  countenance  to  the  suppo- 
sition that  the  work  was  written  with  an  interested  motive. 
Geoffrey  probably  aspired,  like  most  of  his  class,  to  preferment 
in  the  church,  and  may  have  hoped  that  his  book  would  in- 
gratiate him  with  the  earl  of  Gloucester  and  with  Alexander, 
bishop  of  Lincoln,  to  whom  he  dedicated,  separately,  the 
"Prophesies  of  Me^n."  Assuming  him  to  have  had  such 
motives,  Geoffrey's  History  is  interpreted  as  being  a  kind  of 
i  prose  epic,  intended  to  celebrate  the  united  glories  of  the 
composite  Anglo-Norman  empire  which  attained  its  widest 
extent  under  Henry  H.^  It  did,  indeed,  provide  a  hero  in 
whom  Norman  and  Saxon,  Welshman  and  Breton,  could  take 
common  pride.  Moreover,  the  ancient  birthright  and  the 
essential  homogeneity  of  the  various  races  embraced  in  the 

sources  is  given  in  The  Arthurian  Material  in  the  Chronicles  by  R.  H.  Fletcher 
{Harvard  Studies  in  Phil,  and  Lit.,  vol.  x,  1906). 

'  See  the  epilogue  to  Geoffrey's  History. 

2  This  hypothesis  is  advanced  with  much  ingenuity,  and  plausibility,  in 
the  epilogue  to  what  is  the  best  English  translation  of  Geoffrey's  History,  by 
Sebastian  Evans,  London,  1903. 


Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  287 

Angevin  empire  were  attested  by  an  account  of  their  de- 
scent from  a  branch  of  the  Trojan  stock  celebrated  in  the 
Aeneid.  Brutus,  whose  eponymous  connection  with  the 
country  had  already  been  suggested  by  Nennius,  became  for 
Britain  what  Aeneas  was  for  Rome.  Geoffrey's  chronicle 
is  thus  the  first  Brut,  the  first  elaborate,  and  possibly  "in- 
spired," adaptation  of  the  Brutus  legend  for  the  glorification 
of  Britain;  and,  in  time,  all  records  of  the  early  British  kings, 
whether  in  prose  or  verse,  which  had  this  mythic  starting- 
point,  came  to  be  called  Bruts — presumably  in  imitation  of  the  ■ 
title  of  Vergil's  epic. 

Apart,  however,  from  its  Trojan  prelude,  and  its  possible 
political  or  diplomatic  motive,  there  is  little  real  analogy 
between  Geoffrey's  Brut  and  the  Aeneid.  For  Arthur,  after 
all,  and  not  Brutus,  is  Geoffrey's  ultimate  hero.  The  fios 
regum  of  early  Britain,  the  warrior  who  vindicates  the  essential 
valour  of  the  British  people,  and  who  not  only  triumphs  over 
his  insignificant  enemies  in  Britain  itself,  but  conquers  a  great 
part  of  Europe  and  forces  even  the  once  victorious  Romans  to 
pay  tribute  to  a  British  king,  is  Arthur.  In  him  was  fulfilled 
the  prophecy  that  "for  the  third  time  should  one  of  British 
race  be  born  who  should  obtain  the  empire  of  Rome."  Thus, 
Geoffrey  brings  all  his  powers  of  rhetoric,  and  all  his  imagina- 
tion, to  bear  upon  his  delineation  of  Arthur  and  his  exploits. 
The  first  six  books  of  the  History  tell,  with  many  embellish- 
ments of  style  and  with  incidental  references  to  contemporary 
events  elsewhere,  inserted,  as  so  many  grave  guarantees  of 
authenticity,  the  story  of  Arthur's  kingly  predecessors.  At 
the  close  of  the  sixth  book  the  weird  figure  of  Merlin  appears 
on  the  scene;  and  Geoffrey  pauses  to  give,  in  an  entire  book, 
the  fantastic  prophecies  attributed  to  that  wonder-wopking 
seer.  Romance,  frank  and  undisguised,  now  usurps  the  place 
of  sober,  or  affected,  history.  Merlin's  magic  arts  are  made 
largely  contributory  to  the  birth  of  "the  most  renowned 
Arthur."  Uther  and  Gorlois  and  Igema  and  the  castle  of 
Tintagol,  or  Tintagel,  now  take  their  place,  for  the  first  time, 
in  the  fabric  of  Arthurian  story. 

Uther,  w4th  ]\Ierlin's  assistance,  gains  admission  to  Igema's 
castle  in  the  semblance  of  her  lord,  Gorlois,  and  begets  Arthur; 
upon  the  death  of  Gorlois,  Uther  takes  Igerna  for  his  law- 


288  The  Arthurian  Legend 

ful  queen,  and  iVrthur  of  due  right  succeeds  to  the  throne. 
Crowned  by  Dubricius,  "archbishop  of  the  City  of  Legions," 
at  the  early  age  of  fifteen,  Arthur  at  once  begins  his  career  of 
conquest.  The  Saxons,  Scots  and  Picts  are  encountered  and 
vanquished  at  the  river  Duglas;  afterwards,  with  the  aid  of 
his  cousin,  king  Hoel  of  Brittany,  Arthur  subjugates  the  entire 
island  and  divides  Scotland  among  its  original  rightful  rulers, 
Lot  and  his  two  brothers,  Urian  and  Augusel.  Lot,  we  are 
told  by  the  wa}^  "had,  in  the  days  of  Aurelius  Ambrosius, 
married  Arthur's  own  sister,  who  had  borne  unto  him  Gawain 
and  Mordred."  Having  restored  the  whole  country  to  its 
ancient  dignity,  Arthur  "took  unto  himself  a  wife  born  of  a 
noble  Roman  family,  Guanhumara,  who,  brought  up  and 
nurtured  in  the  household  of  duke  Cador,  surpassed  in  beauty 
all  the  other  women  of  the  island."  Ireland  and  Iceland  are 
next  added  to  his  conquests,  while  tribute  is  paid  and  homage 
made  to  him  by  the  rulers  of  the  Orkneys  and  of  Gothland. 
His  court  now  is  the  centre  of  a  brilliant  assemblage  of  knights, 
his  fear  "falls  upon  the  kings  of  realms  oversea"  and  his 
"heart  became  so  uplifted  within  him"  that  "he  set  his  desire 
upon  subduing  the  whole  of  Europe  unto  himself. "  ^  Norw-ay, 
Dacia  and  Gaul  fall  in  quick  succession  under  Arthur's  sway ; 
Normandy  is  made  over  to  "  Bedwyr,  his  butler,"  and  Anjou  to 
"  Kay,  his  seneschal."  Returning  to  Britain,  Arthur  next  holds 
high  court  at  Caerleon-upon-Usk,  then  a  city  whose  "  kingly 
palaces"  vied  in  magnificence  with  those  of  Rome  itself. 

At  that  time  was  Britain  exalted  unto  so  high  a  pitch  of  dignity 
as  that  it  did  surpass  all  other  kingdoms  in  plenty  of  riches,  in 
luxury  of  adornment,  and  in  the  courteous  wit  of  them  that  dwelt 
therein.  Whatsoever  knight  in  the  land  was  of  renown  for  his 
prowess  did  wear  his  clothes  and  his  arms  all  of  one  same  colour. 
And  the  dames,  no  less  witty,  would  apparel  them  in  like  manner 
in  a  single  colour,  nor  would  they  deign  have  the  love  of  any  save 
he  had  thrice  approved  him  in  the  wars.  Wherefore  at  that  time 
did  dames  wax  chaste  and  knights  the  nobler  for  their  love.  ^ 

The  pomp  and  colour  of  the  age  of  chivalry,  and  its  ideals 
of  knightly  love,  are  thus  already  beginning  to  qualify  imagina- 
tive conceptions  of  the  Arthurian  court;  while  the  picture  of 

<  Bk.  IX,  ch.  XI. 

2  S.  Evans's  trans.  (London,  1903). 


Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  289 

Arthur  himself,  as  the  head  of  princely  vassals  and  emulous 
knights,  makes  the  transition  easy  to  the  fellowship  of  the 
Round  Table,  and  to  all  the  other  accretions  of  later  romances. 
But  Geoffrey  does  not,  any  more  than  the  early  Welsh  poets 
and  story-tellers  or  the  later,  and  more  deliberate,  purveyors 
of  fantastic  fables,  altogether  remove  his  Arthur  from  wonder- 
land. The  British  king  still  slays  monsters ;  by  his  own  hand  he 
kills  a  Spanish  giant  at  St.  Michael's  Mount,  and  a  still  more 
formidable  foe,  the  giant  "Ritho  of  Mount  Eryri,  who  had 
fashioned  him  a  furred  cloak  of  the  kings  he  had  slain." 
Equally  marvellous  is  Arthur's  individual  might  in  battle, 
for,  in  his  encounters  with  the  Romans,  "  nought  might  armour 
avail"  his  antagonists  "but  that  Caliburn  would  carve  their 
souls  from  out  them  with  their  blood." 

The  great  battle  with  the  Romans,  in  which  Arthur  dis- 
played such  prowess,  was  a  fateful  one.  The  British  hosts 
did,  indeed,  gain  the  victoiy ;  and  Hoel  and  Gawain  (Walgainus) 
performed  prodigies  of  valour  second  only  to  those  of  Arthur 
himself.  But  the  triumph  was  obtained  at  a  heavy  cost; 
many  illustrious  British  chieftains,  and,  above  all,  the  faithful 
Kay  and  Bedwyr,  were  numbered  among  the  slain.  The 
result  of  the  battle  was  to  fire  Arthur  with  the  design  of  march- 
ing upon  the  city  of  Rome  itself.  He  was  already  beginning 
to  climb  the  passes  of  the  Alps,  when  "message  was  brought 
him  that  his  nephew  Mordred,  unto  whom  he  had  committed 
the  charge  of  Britain,  had  tyrannousl}*  and  traitorously  set  the 
crown  of  the  kingdom  upon  his  own  head,  and  had  linked  him 
in  unhallowed  union  with  Guenevere,  the  queen,  in  despite 
of  her  former  marriage."^  Arthur,  taking  with  him  his 
British  warriors  only,  returns  home.  Mordred  meets  him  as  he 
lands,  and,  in  the  ensuing  battle,  Gaw^ain  and  many  others  are 
slain.  Mordred,  however,  is  driven  back,  and  Guinevere,  in 
terror  of  her  safety,  becomes  a  nun.  The  final  battle  is  fought 
at  the  river  Camel  in  the  west  country.  IMordred  is  defeated 
and  slain,  and  most  of  the  leaders  on  both  sides  perish.  "  Even 
the  renowned  king  Arthur  himself  was  wounded  unto  death, 
and  was  borne  thence  unto  the  island  of  Avalon  for  the  healing 
of  his  wounds." 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  narrative  through  the  medium  of 

'  Book  X,  ch.  XIII. 
19 


290  The  Arthurian  Legend 

which  Arthur  made  his  triumphant  entry  to  the  kingship  of  the 
miost  splendid  province  of  medieval  romance.  Let  Geoffrey 
have  the  credit  which  is  his  due.  It  is  little  to  the  point  to 
seek  to  minimise  his  influence  upon  the  rise  and  growth  of 
Arthurian  romance  by  emphasising  his  omissions, — that,  for 
example,  he  knows  nothing  of  Lancelot,  of  Tristram,  of  the 
Holy  Grail  and  of  other  famous  characters  and  incidents  of 
the  fully- developed  legend.  The  salient  fact  is  that,  while 
before  the  appearance  of  Geoffrey's  History  Arthur,  as  a 
literary  hero,  is  virtually  unknown,  he  becomes,  almost  im- 
mediately afterwards,  the  centre  of  the  greatest  of  the  ro- 
mantic cycles.  He  is,  indeed,  transformed  eventually  into  a 
very  different  being  from  the  warlike  British  champion  of 
Geoffrey's  book;  but  it  is  in  that  book  that  we  obtain  our 
first  full-length  literary  portrait  of  him,  and,  in  the  Mordred 
and  Guinevere  episode,  that  we  find  the  first  deliberate  sug- 
gestion of  the  love-tragedy  which  the  romancers  were  so  quick 
to  seize  upon  and  to  expand.  Geoffrey's  Arthur  is,  no  doubt,, 
largely  a  Nomianised  Arthur,  and  many  of  the  details  and 
incidents  woven  into  his  narrative  are  derived  from  his  know- 
ledge and  observation  of  Norman  manners  and  Norman 
pompi  ;  but  his  story,  as  a  whole,  has,  like  every  vivid  product 
of  the  imagination,  a  charm  altogether  independent  of  the 
time  and  the  conditions  of  its  making,  and  is  charged  through- 
out with  the  seductive  magic  of  romance.  Hence  the  spell 
which  Geoffrey's  legends  exerted  over  so  many  famous  English 
poets,  haunted  by  memories  of 

what  resounds 
In  fable  or  romance  of  Uther's  son. 
Begirt  with  British  and  Armoric  knights. 

Possibly,  no  work  before  the  age  of  printed  books  attained 
such  immediate  and  astonishing  popularity.  To  this  the 
number  of  extant  MSS.  of  the  work  bears  testimony, 2  while 
translations,  adaptations,  and  continuations  of  it  formed  one 
of  the  staple  exercises  of  a  host  of  medieval  scribes.  The 
sensation  created  by  the  book  at  the  time  of  its  first  circulation 
is  attested  by  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the  earliest  of  all,  writers 

»  See  Fletcher,  The  Arthurian  Material  in  iJte  Chronicles  (Harvard,  1906),. 
pp.  109  sqq. 

2  The  British  Museum  alone  has  thirty-five,  and  the  Bodleian  sixteen. 


Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  291 

who  borrowed  from  it — Alfred  of  Beverley.  In  the  preface 
to  his  History,  largely  an  abridgment  of  Geoffrey  compiled 
about  1 1 50,  Alfred  states  that  Geoffrey's  book  was  so  universally 
talked  of  that  to  confess  ignorance  of  its  stories  was  the  mark 
of  a  clown. 

In  the  epilogue  to  his  History,  where  he  bids  William  of 
Malmesbury  and  Henry  of  Huntingdon  "be  silent  as  to  the 
kings  of  the  Britons,"  Geoffrey  commits  the  task  of  writing 
their  further  history  to  "Caradoc  of  Llancarvan,  my  contem- 
porary." No  Latin  chronicle  bearing  Caradoc's  name  is 
known  to  exist;  but  certain  Welsh  compilations,  continuing 
Geoffrey's  narrative  down  to  the  year  1156,  are,  on  very 
doubtful  authority,  ascribed  to  him.^  Caradoc's  authorship 
is,  however,  claimed  with  more  confidence  for  a  work  which 
embodies  a  few  Arthurian  traditions  of  which  Geoffrey  seems 
to  have  been  ignorant — the  Latin  Life  of  Gildas.  In  this 
curious  production,  written  either  before  or  shortly  after 
Geoft'rey's  death, 2  Arthur  is  described,  first  of  all,  as  being 
engaged  in  deadly  feud  with  Hueil,  or  Huel,  king  of  Scotland 
and  one  of  Gildas's  twenty-three  brothers,  whom  he  finally 
kills;  he  subsequently  comes  into  collision  with  Melwas,  the 
wicked  king  of  "the  summer  country,"  or  Somerset,  who  had, 
unknown  to  him,  abducted  his  wife,  Guenever,  and  concealed 
her  in  the  abbey  of  Glastonia.  Just  as  the  two  kings  are 
about  to  meet  in  battle,  the  monks  of  Glastonia,  accompanied 
by  Gildas,  intervene  and  succeed  in  persuading  Melwas  to  re- 
store Guenever  to  Arthur.  This  would  seem  to  be  the  earliest 
appearance  of  the  tradition  which,  in  the  romances,  substi- 
tutes Melwas  (the  Mellyagraunce  of  Malory)  for  Mordred  as  the 
abductor  of  Guinevere.  Other  Latin  lives  of  Welsh  saints, 
written  not  long  after  the  Life  of  Gildas,  record  traditions 
about  Arthur  which  are  quite  independent  of  Geoffrey, ^  which 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  Geoffrey's  direct  borrowings  of 
Arthurian  stories  from  Welsh  sources  are  comparatively  slight. 
Popular  though  it  immediately  became  elsewhere,  Geoffrey's 

»  See  the  English  translation  published  in  1584  by  David  Powell. 

2  According  to  a  competent  authority,  about  1160  (F.  Lot  in  Romania, 
XXIV,  330).  The  MS.  (at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge)  is  of  the 
twelfth  century. 

3  See,  for  example,- the  Life  of  St.  Carannog  and  the  Life  of  St.Cadoc  in  Rees's 
Cambro-British  Saints  (1853). 


2Q2 


The  Arthurian  Legend 


^ 


History,  it  is  strange  to  find,  seems  to  have  aroused  little 
interest  in  Wales.  An  important  Welsh  translation  of  it,^ 
which  was,  at  one  time,  supposed  to  have  been  its  "British" 
original,  was,  indeed,  made  at  an  early  date,  but  the  medieval 
Welsh  bards  remained  altogether  indifferent  to  Arthurian 
story.  The  second  great  period  of  Welsh  bardic  activity 
extends  from  the  twelfth  century  down  to  the  death  of  Prince 
Llywelyn  ap  Gruff ud  in  1282 ;  but  we  look  in  vain  among  the 
works  of  the  crowd  of  bards  w^ho  flourished  at  this  period 
for  any  celebration  of  Arthur  and  his  deeds.  There  is  no 
Welsh  metrical  romance,  or  epic,  of  Arthur.  The  medieval 
bards  sing,  in  preference,  of  living  warriors  or  of  those  lately 
dead,  well  knowing  that  such  encomiastic  poetry  brought  its 
ready  rewards.  It  is  to  her  prose  story-tellers  that  Wales 
owes  her  one  incomparable  contribution  to  Arthurian  romance 
in  the  native  tongue. 

Th^  full  value  of  the  Arthurian  stories  as  poetic  and  ro- 
mantic  matter  and,  in  particular,  their  possibilities  of  adap- 
tation and  expansion  as  ideal  tales  of  chivalry,  were  first 
perceived  in  France,  or,  at  any  rate,  by  writers  who  used  the 
French  language.  Three  stages,  or  forms,  in  the  literary  ex- 
ploitation to  which  the  legends  were  subjected  by  French 
-romantic  writers,  can  be  clearly  traced.  First  comes  the 
Vjinetrical  chronicle,  in  which  Geoffrey's  quasi-historical  narra- 
tive appears  in  an  expanded  and  highly-coloured  romantic 
setting,  and  of  which  Wace's  Brut  is  the  earliest  standard 
example.  This  was  the  literary  form  in  whicla  the  Arthurian 
legend  made  its  first  appearance  in  English.  \3^ext  in  order 
and  not  much  later,  perhaps,  in  their  actual  origin,  come 
the  metrical  romances  proper.  These  poetical  romances, 
of  which  the  works  of  Chretien  de  Troyes  are  at  once  the 
typical,  and  the  most  successful,  examples,  are  concerned 
with  the  careers  and  achievements  of  individual  knights  of 
the  Arthurian  court.     In  them,  Arthur  himself  plays  quite 

1  Ystorya  Brenhined  y  Brytanyeit  in  The  Red  Book  of  Hergest  (edd.  Rhys  and 
Gwenogvryn  Evans,  Oxford,  1890).  Another  Welsh  chronicle,  also  at  one 
time  supposed  to  have  been  Geoffrey's  original,  is  Tysilio's  Brut,  printed  in 
the  Myvyrian  Archceology  of  Wales  as  "from  The  Red  Book  of  Hergest."  No 
such  chronicle,  however,  appears  in  The  Red  Book.  Tysilio  is  supposed  to 
have  lived  in  the  seventh  century;  the  chronicle  ascribed  to  him  is  not  found 
in  any  MS.  earlier  than  the  fifteenth. 


\ 


The  French  Romances  293 

a  subordinate  part;  his  wars  and  the  complications  that  led 
to  his  tragic  end  are  altogether  lost  sight  of.  vjfhe  third  stage 
is  represented  by  the  prose  romances,  which  began  to  be  com- 
piled, probably,  during  the  closing  years  of  the  twelfth  century, 
and  which  underwent  a  continuous  process  of  expansion,  in- 
terpolation and  redaction  until  about  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth century.  Many  of  these  prose  romances,  such  as  those 
of  Merlin  and  Lancelot,  give  much  greater  prominence  than 
the  poems  do  to  Arthur's  individual  deeds  and  fortunes.  The 
most  celebrated  name  associated  with  the  authorship  of 
these  prose  works  is  that  of  Walter  Map,  who,  calling,  as  he 
does,  the  Welsh  his  "fellow-countrymen,"  ^  brings  Wales  and 
the  Angevin  court,  once  more,  into  touch  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Arthurian  legend. 

The  Norman  clerk,  Wace,  was  the  first  French  writer  who 
turned  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  fabulous  chronicle  to  profitable 
poetical  uses.  Geoffrey  Gaimar,  an  Anglo-Norman  writer  who 
lived  in  the  north  of  England,  had,  probably,  anticipated 
Wace's  design;  2  but  no  copy  of  Gaimar's  translation  has  been 
preserved.  Wace's  poem  was  completed  in  11 55,  and,  accord- 
ing to  Layamon,^  was  dedicated  to  queen  Eleanor,  the  wife 
of  Henry  II — another  fact  which  indicates  the  interest  taken 
by  the  Anglo-Norman  court  in  the  literary  exploitation  and 
the  dissemination  of  British  legends.  Wace  was  a  courtly 
writer,  and  in  his  narrative  Arthur  appears  as  the  flower 
of  chivalry,  the  ideal  knightly  warrior  of  the  Norman  imagi- 
nation. Although  his  poem  is  based,  in  substance,  entirely 
on  Geoffrey's  History,  Wace  is  far  from  being  a  mere  servile 
translator  of  Geoffrey.  He  dresses  up  Geoffrey's  matter  with 
a  wealth  of  picturesque  detail  and  of  colour  all  his  own.  More- 
over, he  seems  to  have  had  access  to  romantic  traditions,  or 
stories,  quite  unknown  to  Geoffrey.  The  Round  Table,  for 
example,  is  first  heard  of  in  Wace — and  of  it,  as  he  says,  "the 
Bretons  tell  many  a  fable."  It  was  made  by  Arthur  in 
order   to    settle    all    disputes    about    precedence    among   his 

>  De  Nttgis  Curialium,  Dist.  ii,  ch.  xx. 

2  Gaimar  had  probably  completed  his  work  by  1 1 50.  His  lost  History  of  the 
Britons  formed  a  prelude  to  his  L'Estorie  des  Eagles,  which  has  been  pre- 
served (ed.  Hardy  and  Martin,  Rolls  Series,  18S8-9). 

•^Layamon  states  that  Wace  "gave"  his  book  to  "the  noble  Eleanor,  who 
was  the  high  king  Henry's  queen,''  Brut,  11.  42,  43. 


1/ 


294  The  Arthurian  Legend 

knights.  1  Wace  also  amplifies  Geoffrey's  account  of  the  pass- 
ing of  Arthur.  The  British  king  is  not  merely  left  in  Avalon 
"to  be  cured  of  his  wounds";  he  is  still  there,  the 
Bretons  await  him,  and  say  that  he  will  come  back  and  live 
again.  2  Wace's  poem,  as  a  whole,  thus  represents  an 
intermediate  stage  between  the  chronicles  and  the  pure  rom- 
ances. It  must  have  contributed  powerfully  to  the  popularity 
of  "the  matter  of  Britain,"  by  putting  it  into  a  form  and 
a  language  which  commanded  a  much  larger  constituency  of 
readers  than  would  be  attracted  by  any  Latin  prose  nar- 
rative, however  highly   coloured  or  agreeably  written. 

Above  all,  Wace's  B^U  is  of  signal  interest  to  English 
readers  as  forming  the  basis  of  the  solitary  contribution  of  any 
consequence  made  by  an  English  writer  to  the  vast  and  varied 
mass  of  Arthurian  literature  before  the  fourteenth  century. 

N^aYamon,  however,  is  a  very  different  poet  from  Wace.  While 
not  indifferent  to  romance,  as  several  significant  additions  to 
the  Arthurian  part  of  his  story  will  show,  Layamon  wrote  his 
Brut  as  a  frankly  patriotic  English  epic.  Wace's  work  is 
almost  as  artificial  and  exotic  a  product  as  the  poetical  rom- 
ances ;  it  was  designed  as  a  contribution  to  the  polite  literature 
of  the  Norman  aristocracy.  Layamon,  dwelling  in  seclu- 
sion on  the  banks  of  the  Severn,  where  "  it  was  good  to  be," 
was  fired  by  an  ambition  "  to  tell  the  noble  deeds  of  England," 
and  to  tell  them  in  the  English  tongue.  His  poem  is  the  first 
articulate  utterance  of  the  native  English  genius  reasserting 

^  itself  in  its  own  language  after  the  long  silence  which  succeeded 
the  Conquest.  Although  he  borrows  most  of  his  matter  from 
Wace,  Layamon,  in  manner  and  spirit,  is  much  nearer  akin 
to  the  robust  singers  of  the  Old  English  period  than  to  the 
courtly  French  poet.  The  simple  force  and  vividness  of  the 
primitive  English  epic  reappear  in  descriptions  of  battle  scenes 
and  of  heroic  deeds.  Even  the  poet's  diction  is  scrupulously 
pure  English.  And  Arthur,  who,  in  the  hands  of  the  profes- 
sional romancers,  had  already  become  all  but  an  alien  to 
his  fatherland,  is  restored  to  his  rightful  place  as  the  cham- 
pion of  Britain,  and  the  great  Christian  king  who 

Drew  all  the  petty  princedoms  under  him, 
Their  king  and  head,  and  made  a  realm,  and  reign'd. 
*  LI.  9994-10,007.  2  L.  13,685. 


Layamon  295 

Arthur,  therefore,  was  to  Layamon,  primarily,  the  ideal 
British  hero — an  actual  king  of  England,  whose  character  and 
prowess  deserved  the  veneration  of  his  countrymen  altogether 
apart  from  the  glamour  with  which  romance  had  enshrouded 
his  name.     But  Layamon  was  a  poet;  and  upon  him,  as  upon 
the  rest,  the  romantic  glamour  works  its  inevitable  spell.     Elf- 
land  claims  Arthur,  both  at  his  birth  and  at  his  death.     Elves 
received  him  into  the  world;  they  gave  him  gifts,  to  become      ^' 
the  best  of  knights  and  a  mighty  king,  to  have  long  Hfe  and 
to  be  generous  above  all  living  men.i     At  his  passing,  Arthur 
says  he  will  go  to  Argante  (Morgan  le  fay),  the  splendid  elf; 
she  will  heal  him  of  his  wounds,  so  that  he  will  return  again 
to  his  kingdom. 2     Again,  Arthur's  byrnie  was  made  for  him 
by  Wygar,  the  elvish  smith, ^  his  spear  by  Griffin  of  the  city 
of  the  wizard  Merlin   (Kaermerdin).*      Caliburn,   his  sword, 
was  wrought  in  Avalon  with  magic  craft  ;S  the  Round  Table  by 
a  strange  carpenter  from  beyond  the  sea.^     Nowhere,  however, 
does  Layamon's  poem  breathe  more  of  the   spirit  of   pure 
romance  than  in  the  passages  which  describe  Arthur's  last 
battle    and    fall.     The    encounter   took    place    at   Camelford 
(Camlan)    "a  name  that  will  last  for  ever."^     The    stream 
hard  by,  "was  flooded  with  blood   unmeasured."      So  thick 
was  the  throng  that  the  warriors  could  not  distinguish  each 
other, 8  but  "each  slew  downright,  were  he  sw^ain,  were  he 
knight."     Modred  and  all  his  knights  perished  and   "there 
were  slain  all  the  brave  ones,  Arthur's  warriors,  high  and  low, 
and  all  the  Britons  of  Arthur's  board."     Of  all  the  two  hundred 
thousand  men  who  fought  none  remained,  at  the  end  of  the 
fight,  save   Arthur   and    two  of   his    knights.      But    Arthur 
was  sorely   wounded,   and,  bidding   the  young   Constantine, 
Cador's  son,  take  charge  of    his  kingdom,  he   consigns  him- 
self  to  the  care   of    Argante,  "the    fairest   of  all   maidens," 
who  dwells  in  Avalon.     Thence,  cured  of  his  wounds,  he  will 
come  again  to  "dwell  with  the  Britons  with  mickle  joy." 

Even  with  the  words  there  came  from  the  sea  a  short  boat 

>Ll.i9,  254  sqq.  (Madden's  ed.).         2  LI.  28,6iosqq.         31^.21,133. 

*  L.  23,783.  5L.  21,  135.  6  L.  22,910.  '  LI.  28,533  sqq. 

8  Cf.  Tennyson,  Passing  of  Arthur: 

"For  friend  and  foe  were  shadows  in  the  mist, 
And  friend  slew  friend  not  knowing  whom  he  slew." 


296  The  Arthurian  Legend 

borne  on  the  waves,  and  two  women  therein,  wondrously  arrayed: 
and  they  took  Arthur  anon,  and  bare  him  quickly,  and  softly  laid 
him  down,  and  fared  forth  away.  Then  was  brought  to  pass  that 
which  Merlin  whilom  said,  that  there  should  be  sorrow  untold  at 
Arthur's  forth-faring.  The  Britons  believe  yet  that  he  is  alive, 
and  dwelleth  in  Aval  on,  with  the  fairest  of  all  elves,  and  ever  yet 
the  Britons  look  for  Arthur's  coming.  Was  never  the  man  born, 
nor  ever  of  woman  chosen,  that  knoweth  the  sooth,  to  say  more  of 
Arthur.  But  whilom  there  was  a  seer  hight  Merlin;  he  said  with 
words — and  his  sayings  were  sooth — that  an  Arthur  should  yet 
come  to  help  the  Britons. 

In  this  passage,  as  in  many  others,  Layamon  supplies 
several  details  not  found  in  Wace,  and  his  poem  throughout 
bears  abundant  evidence  that  he  drew  upon  a  fund  of  inde- 
',  pendent  traditions  gleaned  from  many  fields.  Among  the 
I  most  interesting  of  Layamon's  additions  to,  and  amplifications 
I  of,  Wace's  narrative  are  his  accounts  of  Arthur's  dream  shortly 
1  before  his  last  return  to  Britain,  and  of  the  origin  and  the 
making  of  the  Round  Table.  The  dream,i  of  which- neither 
Geoffre}^  nor  Wace  knows  anything,  foreshadows  the  trdachery 
of  Modred  and  Guinevere,  and  disturbs  Arthur  with  the  sense 
of  impending  doom.  The  occasion  of  the  institutiorj'  of  the 
Round  Table  is,  as  in  Wace,  a  quarrel  for  precedence  among 
Arthur's  knights;  but  the  description  of  the  actual  making, 
and  of  the  properties,  of  the  Table  is  all  Layamon's  own.  It 
was  while  he  was  in  Cornwall,  after  the  quarrel  among  his 
knights,  that  Arthur  met  the  man  from  oversea  who  offered 
to  "  make  him  a  board,  wondrous  fair,  at  which  sixteen  hundred 
men  and  more  might  sit."  ^  Its  huge  size  notwithstanding, 
and  though  it  took  four  weeks  to  make,  the  board  could,  by 
some  magic  means,  be  carried  by  Arthur  as  he  rode,  and  set  by 
him  in  what  place  soever  he  willed.  Like  Wace,  Layamon  evi- 
dently knew  stories  about  the  Round  Table  of  which  the 
origin  has  never  been  traced;  for  "this  was  that  same  table" 
he  says,  "of  which  the  Britons  boast" — the  Britons,  who 
tell  "many  leasings"  of  king  Arthur,  and  say  of  him  things 
"that  never  happened  in  the  kingdom  of  this  w^orld."  ^  So 
it  would  appear  that  Layamon,  had  he  pleased,  could  have 
told  us  much  more  of  Arthur,     Even  as  it  stands,  however,, 

'See  11.  28,020  sqq.  2  See  11.  22,910  sqq.  ^  L.  22,987. 


Subsidiary  Legends  297 

his  poem  is  a  notable  contribution  to  Arthurian  story,  and  has 
the  unique  distinction  of  being  the  first  celebration  of  "the 
matter  of  Britain"  in  the  English  tongue. 

When  we  pass  from  the  metrical  chronicles  to  the  pure 
romances,  both  verse  and  prose,  we  all  but  part  with  the 
traditional  British  Arthur  altogether.  Not  only  are  we  sud- 
denly transported  into  the  "no  man's  land"  of  chivalry,  but 
we  find  ourselves  surrounded  by  strange  apparitions  from 
regions  Geoffrey  and  his  translators  never  knew.  In  the 
romances,  the  Arthurian  court  sei*\^es  but  as  a  convenient  ren- 
dezvous for  a 

moving  row 
Of  magic  shadow-shapes  that  come  and  go 

in  quest  of  adventures  which  bear  little  or  no  relation  to  the 
British  king.  Characters,  of  whom  the  chroniclers  tell  us 
nothing,  and  who  were  themselves  the  heroes  of  quite  inde- 
pendent legends,  now  make  a  dramatic  entry  upon  the  Arthur- 
ian stage.  Tristram  and  Lancelot  and  Perceval  play  parts 
which  divert  our  attention  quite  away  from  that  assigned 
to  Arthur  himself.  Thus,  a  complete  history  of  Arthurian 
romance  involves  a  series  of  enquiries  into  the  growth  of  a 
number  of  legends  which  have,  for  the  most  part,  only  the 
most  artificial  connection  with  the  original  Arthurian  tradition. 
Some  of  these  legends  are  as  archaic,  and  as  purely  mythical, 
as  the  primitive  fables  about  the  British  Arthur,  and  were 
probably  current  in  popular  lays  long  before  the  latter  half 
of  the  twelfth  century.  A  full  account  of  the  romances  in 
which  they  were  embodied  and  enriched  during  the  age  of 
chivalry  belongs  to  the  history  of  French  and  German,  rather 
than  to  that  of  English,  literature.  Not  until  the  fourteenth 
century  do  we  come  across  a  single  English  writer  whose  name 
is  to  be  mentioned  in  the  same  breath  with  those  of  Chretien 
de  Troyes  and  the  authors  of  the  French  prose  romances,  or 
of  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  Gottfried  von  Strassburg  and 
Hartmann  von  Aue.  Here,  only  the  briefest  review  can  be 
attempted  of  the  main  features  of  the  subsidiary  legends  which 
were  imported,  by  these  and  other  writers,  into  the  vast  Ar- 
thurian miscellany. 

0  f  all  such  legends ,  the  most  intimately  connected  with  Arthur 


298  The  Arthurian  Legend 

himself  is  the  story  of  Merlin.  In  Welsh  tradition,  Merlin,  or 
Myrdin,  is  a  figure  very  similar  to  Taliesin — a  wizard  bard  of  the 
sixth  century,  to  whom  a  number  of  spurious  poetical  com- 
positions came,  in  course  of  time,  to  be  ascribed.  His  first  as- 
sociation with  Arthur  is  due  to  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  who 
identifies  him  with  the  Ambrosius  of  Nennius  and  makes  of  him 
both  a  magician  and  a  prophet;  to  his  magic  arts,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  birth  of  Arthur  was  largely  due.  His  character  is 
further  developed  in  a  Latin  hexameter  poem.  Vita  Merlini, 
composed,  probably,  about  the  year  11 48  and  attributed  by 
several  competent  authorities  to  Geoffrey.  This  poem,  how- 
ever, presents  us  with  a  conception  of  the  mage  which  is  not 
easy  to  reconcile  with  the  account  given  of  him  in  Geoffrey's 
History,  and  suggests  many  points  of  analogy  with  certain 
early  Welsh  poems  in  which  Merlin  figures,  and  with  which 
Geoffrey  could  hardly  have  been  acquainted.^  Merlin  makes 
his  first  appearance  in  French  romantic  poetry  in  a  poem  of 
which  only  a  fragment  has  been  preserved,  supposed  to  be  by 
Robert  de  Borron,  and  dating  from  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century.  Upon  this  poem  was  based  the  French  prose  romance 
of  Merlin,  part  of  which  is  assigned  to  Robert  de  Borron,  and 
which  exists  in  two  forms — the  first  known  as  the  "ordinary" 
Merlin,  and  the  other  as  the  Suite  de  Merlin.  For  Robert  de 
Borron  the  enchanter's  arts  are  but  so  many  manifestations  of 
the  powers  of  darkness;  Merlin  himself  becomes  the  devil's 
offspring  and  most  active  agent.  From  the  Suite  de  Merlin, 
of  which  Malory's  first  four  books  are  an  abridged  version, 
was  derived  one  of  the  minor  offshoots  of  Arthurian  romance, 
the  striking  story  of  Balin  and  Balan.  The  earliest  romance 
of  Merlin  in  English  is  the  metrical  Arthour  and  Merlin, 
translated  from  a  French  original  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  This  work,  however,  is  not  so  well 
known  as  the  great  prose  Merlin,  a  translation  from  the  French 
made  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

No  knight  of  the  primitive  Arthurian  fellowship  enjoyed 
a  higher  renown  than  Arthur's  nephew,  Gawain.  Under  the 
name  of  Gwalchmei,  Gawain  figures  prominently  in  the  Welsh 

'  These  resemblances  are  pointed  out  in  what  is  the  fullest  account  of 
the  Merlin  saga  in  English,  Outlines  of  the  History  of  the  Legend  of  Merlin,  by 
W.  E.  Mead  (Part  iv  of  H.  B.  Wheatley's  edition  of  the  prose  Merlin  in  the 
E.E.T.S.  series.) 


V 


Gawain  299 

Triads  and  in  the  Mabinogion;  while  as  Walgainus  he  is  one 
of  Arthur's  most  faithful  and  doughty  lieutenants  in  the 
wars  recounted  by  Geoffrey.  So  great  was  the  traditional 
fame  of  Gawain  that  William  of  Malmesbury  thought  it  worth 
while  to  record  the  discovery  of  his  grave  in  Pembrokeshire; 
and  there  is  some  evidence  that  his  name  was  well  known 
even  in  Italy  by  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.  ^  He 
was,  probably,  the  centre  of  a  cycle  of  adventures  quite  inde- 
pendent of,  and  quite  as  old  as,  the  original  Arthur  saga.  He 
is  certainly  the  hero  of  more  episodic  romances  than  any  ^■ 
other  British  knight, ^  and,  in  the  general  body  of  Arthurian 
romance,  none  is  so  ubiquitous.  In  Chretien  de  Troyes's  Conte 
del  Graal,  and  in  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach's  Parzival,  Gawain 
is  almost  as  important  a  personage  as  Perceval  himself.  In 
the  German  poem  Diu  Krone,  by  Heinrich  von  dem  Tiirlin,  he, 
and  not  Perceval,  is  the  actual  achiever  of  the  Grail  quest. 
It  is  curious,  however,  to  note  that  no  other  knight  undergoes  \ 
so  marked  a  transformation  of  character  in  his  progress  through  i 
the  romances.  In  the  Mabinogion,  and  the  earlier  stages 
of  the  legend  generally,  Gawain  appears  as  the  paragon  of  j 
knightl}^  courtesy — the  gentleman,  par  excellence,  of  the 
Arthurian  court.  In  some  of  the  later  romances,  particularly 
in  the  more  elaborate  versions  of  the  Grail  legend,  as  in  Malory 
and  Tennyson, 

A  reckless  and  irreverent  knight  is  he.^ 

Before  Malory's  time,  however,  Gawain  is  uniformly  presented 
in  English  literature  in  a  flattering  light,  and  no  Arthurian 
hero  was  more  popular  with  English  writers.*  The  finest 
of  all  Middle  English  metrical  romances,  Sir  Gawayne  and  ^ 
the  Grene  Knight,  dealing  with  incidents  derived,  apparently, 
from  a  primitive  form  of  the  Gawain  legend,  portrays  him  in 
his  original  character  as  a  model  of  chivalry  and  of  all  the 
knightly  graces. 

In  the  full-orbed  Arthurian  cycle  the  most  dramatic  feature 

iZimmer,  Gottingische  Gelehrte  Anzeigen,   1890,  No.  20,  p.  831. 

2  Gaston  Paris  gives  summaries  of  a  number  of  these  in  Histoire  Litteraire 
de  la  France,  vol.  xxx. 

^Tennyson,  The  Holy  Grail,  852. 

*  See  the  Sir  Gawayne  romances,  ed.  Madden,  Bannatyne  Club  (London, 
1839). 


300  The  Arthurian  Legend 

of  the  story  which  centres  around  the  fortunes  of  Arthur  hmi- 
self  is  the  love  of  Lancelot  for  Guinevere.  The  story  of  Lance- 
lot is  a  comparatively  late,  and,  to  all  appearance,  a  non-Celtic, 
graft  upon  the  original  Arthurian  stock.  Whether,  as  some 
surmise,  its  motive  was  originally  suggested  by  the  Tristram 
legend  or  not,  it  remains  as  an  obvious  embodiment  of  the 
French  ideal  of  amour  courtois,  and  is  thus  the  most  significant 
example  of  the  direct  influence  of  the  conceptions  of  chivalry 
upon  the  development  of  Arthurian  story.  Lancelot  first 
appears  as  the  lover  of  Guinevere  in  Chretien's  Chevalier  de  la 
Charrette,  a  poem  written  at  the  instance  of  Marie  of  Cham- 
pagne, who  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  elaboration  of  the 
theory  and  practice  of  "courtly  love."  Hence  it  came  about 
that,  as  Chaucer  tells  us,  women  held  "in  ful  gret  reverence 
the  boke  of  Lancelot  de  Lake."  ^  The  book  to  which  Chaucer, 
like  Dante  in  the  famous  passage  about  Paolo  and  Francesca,. 
refers  is,  doubtless,  the  great  prose  romance  of  Lancelot, 
traditionally  associated  with  the  name  of  Walter  Map.  The 
Lancelot  is  a  vast  compilation,  of  which  there  are  three  clear 
divisions — the  first  usually  called  the  Lancelot  proper,  the 
second  the  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail  and  the  third  the  Morte 
Arthur.^  In  the  MSS.  these  romances  are  persistently  attrib- 
uted to  Walter  Map ;  one  version  of  the  Quest  is  described  as 
having  been  written  by  him  "for  the  love  of  his  lord,  king 
Henry,  who  caused  it  to  be  translated  from  Latin  into  French." 
A  passage  in  Hue  de  Rotelande's  poem,  Ipomedon,  following 
the  description  of  a  tournament  which  bears  some  resemblance 
to  incidents  recorded  in  Lancelot,  has  been  taken  to  furnish 
additional  evidence  of  Map's  authorship.^  The  main  difBculty 
about  assigning  these  romances  to  Map  is  that  of  reconciling 
the  composition  of  works  of  such  size  with  his  known  activity 
as  a  courtier  and  a  public  man.  Nor,  apart  from  one  or  two 
fairy-stories  included  in  it,  does  what  may  be  called  his  com- 
mon-place book,  De  Nugis  Curialium,  afford  any  indication  of 
the  life-long  interest  which  Arthurian  romance  must  have  had 

'  Nonne  Prestes  Tale,  392 

2  See  Ward,  Catalogue  of  Romances  in  the  British  Musetitn  (vol.  I,  pp.  345 
sqq.).  for  an  account  of  some  of  the  MSS. 

3  See  ante,  Chapter  x,  p.  211.  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  problems  suggested 
by  this  passage,  see  Ward,  Catalogue  of  Romances  in  B.  M.  (vol.  i,  p.  734)  and 
Miss  J.  L.  Weston's  The  Three  Days'  Tournament  (Nutt,  1902). 


The  Holy  Grail  30 1 

for  one  capable  of  so  imposing  a  contribution  to  its  literature 
as  the  great  prose  Lancelot. 

The  ascription  to  Walter  Map  of  the  prose  Qttest  of  the 
Holy  Grail  links  his  name  with  the  most  intricate  branch  of 
Arthurian  romance.  The  Grail  saga,  in  its  various  ramifica- 
tions and  extensions,  is  the  most  difTficult  to  interpret,  and 
to  account  for  historically,  of  all  the  constituent  elements 
of  the  "matter  of  Britain."  None,  at  any  rate,  affords  a 
better  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  that  matter  came  to 
be  "subdued  to  what  they  worked  in"  by  a  particular  group 
of  romantic  hands.  Just  as  the  ideals  of  courtly  chivalry  shape  ^ 
and  colour  the  story  of  Lancelot,  so  do  the  ascetic  proclivities 
of  a  monastic  cult  assert  themselves  in  the  gradual  unfolding 
of  the  legend  of  the  Holy  Grail.  The  original  hero  of  the  Grail 
quest  appears  to  have  been  Gawain;  but  he  is  soon  displaced 
by  the  central  figure  of  the  existing  versions  of  the  story, 
Perceval.  Perceval,  in  his  turn,  is  superseded  by  one  who 
"exemplifies,  in  a  yet  more  uncompromising,  yet  more  in- 
human, spirit,  the  ideal  of  militant  asceticism,"  ^  Lancelot's 
son,  Galahad.  The  earlier  versions  of  the  legend,  however, 
know  nothing  of  Galahad,  nor  is  there  any  reason  for  assuming 
that  the  primitive  forms  of  the  story  had  any  religious  motive. 
In  the  Grail  literature  which  has  come  down  to  us,  two  distinct 
strata  of  legend,  which  are,  apparently,  independent  of  each 
other  in  their  origin,  are  to  be  clearly  traced.  They  are  dis- 
tinguished as  the  "Quest"  proper,  and  the  "Early  History 
of  the  Holy  Grail. 2  The  best-known  versions  of  the  "Quest" 
are  the  Conte  del  Graal,  of  which  the  earlier  portions  are  by 
Chretien  de  Troyes,  the  Parzival  of  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach 
and  the  Welsh  Mahinogi  of  Peredur.  Of  the  "  Early  History" 
the  chief  versions  are  the  Joseph  of  ArimatJiea  and  Merlin  of 
Robert  de  Borron,  and  the  Quete  del  St.  Graal  attributed  to 
Map. 3  In  the  "Quest"  fonns  of  the  legend  the  interest  turns 
mainly  upon  the  personality  of  the  hero,  Percival,  and  upon  his 

» A.  Nutt,  The  Legends  of  the  Holy  Grail  (Popular  Studies  in  Mythology, 
Romance  and  Folklore,  1902),  p.  72. 

2  This  is  the  classification  made  by  Alfred  Nutt,  our  chief  English  authority 
on  the  Grail  legends. 

3  Other  versions  of  the  Grail  legend  are   those  known  as  the  Grand  St.    . 
Graal,   the  Didot  Perceval  and  Perceval  le  Gallois.      The   latter,  a  thirteenth 
century  prose  romance,  has  been  excellently  translated  by  Sebastian  Evans 
under  the  name  of  The  High  History  of  the  Holy  Grail. 


302  The  Arthurian  Legend 

adventures  in  search  of  certain  talismans,  which  include 
a  sword,  a  bleeding  lance  and  a  "grail"  (either  a  magic  ves- 
sel, as  in  Chretien,  or  a  stone,  as  in  Wolfram).  The  "Early- 
History"  versions  dwell,  chiefly,  upon  the  nature  and  origin 
of  these  talismans.  The  search  for  the  talismans  is,  in  the 
"Quest"  stories,  connected  with  the  healing  of  an  injured 
kinsman,  and  with  the  avenging  of  the  wrong  done  to  him. 
[  In  the  fifteenth  century  English  metrical  romance  of  Sir 
\  Percyvelle,  the  vengeance  of  a  son  upon  his  father's  slayers 
is  the  sole  argument  of  the  story. 

The  Grail  cycle,  in  its  fully  developed  form,  would  thus 
seem  to  comprise  stories  of  mythical  and  pagan  origin,  to- 
gether with  later  accretions  due  entirely  to  the  invention  of 
romancers  with  a  deliberately  ecclesiastical  bias.  The  palpably 
mythical  character  of  the  earlier  "Quest"  versions  points 
to  their  being  of  more  archaic  origin  than  the  " Early  History" 
documents,  and  they  are  almost  certainly  to  be  traced  to 
Celtic  sources.  "The  texture,  the  colouring,  the  essential 
conception  of  the  older  Grail  Quest  stories  can  be  paralleled 
from  early  Celtic  mythic  romance,  and  from  no  other  con- 
temporary European  literature."  ^  These  tales,  however, 
proved  susceptible  of  being  used,  in  the  late  twelfth  and  early 
^  thirteenth  centuries,  for  religious  purposes;  thus,  the  Grail 
\  came  to  be  identified  w^th  the  cup  of  the  Last  Supper,  which 
Pilate  gave  to  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  and  in  which  Joseph 
treasured  the  blood  that  flowed  from  Christ's  wounds  on  the 
Cross.  The  cup  was  brought  by  Joseph  to  Britain,  and  its 
story  is  thus  connected  with  an  old  legend  which  attributed 
to  Joseph  the  conversion  of  Britain  to  Christianity.  The 
traditions  concerning  this  evangelisation  of  Britain  appear 
to  have  been  especially  preserved  in  documents  kept  at  the 
abbey  of  Glastonbury;  and  Glastonbury,  associated  as  it  was 
even  with  Avalon  itself,  came,  as  we  know,  to  have  a  significant 
connection  with  Arthurian  lore  by  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century.  The  glorification  of  Britain  manifestly  intended 
by  this  particular  use  of  the  Grail  legend  suggests,  once  again, 
the  interest  taken  by  the  Angevin  court  in  the  diplomatic 
possibilities  of  adroit  literary  manipulation  of  the  Arthurian 
traditions.     And  if,  indeed,  Henry  H  can  be  proved  to  have 

1  Nutt,  Legends  of  the  Holy  Grail,  p.  59. 


Tristram  and  Iseult  303 

had  anything  to  do  with  it  at  all,  an  argument  of  some  plausi- 
bility is  established  in  support  of  the  MS.  record  that  the 
courtier  Walter  Map  did,  "  for  the  love  of  his  lord,  king 
Henry,"  translate  from  Latin  into  French  The  Quest  of  the 
Holy  Grail. 

There  remains  one  other  famous  legend  to  be  noticed, 
which  has  attached  itself  to  the  Arthurian  group,  and  which 
in  its  origin  and  character  is  the  most  distinctively  Celtic 
of  them  all.  The  story  of  Tristram  and  Iseult  is  the  most 
purely  poetical,  and  probably  the  oldest,  of  the  subsidiary 
Arthurian  tales.  Above  all  its  scene,  its  character  and  its 
motif  mark  it  out  as  the  one  undoubted  and  unchallenged 
property  of  "the  Celtic  fringe."  Ireland  and  Wales,  Corn- 
wall and  Brittany,  all  claim  a  share  in  it.  Tristram  appears, 
under  the  name  of  Drystan  son  of  Tallwch,  as  a  purely  myth- 
ical hero  in  a  very  old  Welsh  triad,  which  represents  him  as 
the  nephew,  and  swineherd,  of  Mark — March  ab  Meirchion — 
protecting  his  master's  swine  against  Arthur's  attempt  to  get 
at  them.i  Mark,  in  the  earliest  poetical  versions  of  the  tale, 
is  king  of  Cornwall.  Iseult,  the  primal  heroine,  is  a  daughter 
of  Ireland,  while  the  other  Iseult,  she  of  the  White  Hands,  is 
a  princess  of  Brittany.  The  entire  story  breathes  the  very 
atmosphere,  and  reflects  the  dim,  mysterious  half-lights,  of 
the  western  islands  beaten  by  the  grey,  inhospitable  sea — 
the  sea,  which,  in  the  finest  rendering  of  the  legend  in  English 
poetry,  keeps  up  a  haunting  choral  accompaniment  to  Iseult's 
anguish-stricken  cries  at  Tintagel,  when 

all  their  past  came  wailing  in  the  wind. 
And  all  their  future  thundered  in  the  sea.^ 

Coloured  by  scarcely  any  trace  of  Christian  sentiment,  and 
only  faintly  touched,  as  compared  with  the  story  of  Lancelot, 
by  the  artificial  conventions  of  chivalry,  the  legend  of  Tristrain 
bears  every  mark  of  a  remote  pagan,  and  Celtic,  origin.  Neither 
in  classical,  nor  in  Teutonic,  saga  is  there  anything  really 
comparable  with  the  elemental  and  overmastering  passion 
which  makes  the  story  of  Tristram  and  Iseult,  in  tragic  interest 

'  See  Rhys,  The  ArtJmrian  Legend,  p.  13,  where  it  is  said  of  March,  or  Mark, 
that  he  was  "according  to  legends,  both  Brythonic  and  Irish,  an  unmistakable 
prince  of  darkness." 

2  Swinburne,  Tristram  of  Lyonesse. 


304  The  Arthurian  Legend 

and  pathos,  second  to  none  of  the  great  love- tales  of  the  world. 
The  Tristram  legend  was  preserved,  in  all  probability,  in 
many  detached  lays  before  it  came  to  be  embodied  in  any 
extant  poem.  The  earliest  known  poetical  versions  of  the 
story  are  those  of  the  Anglo-Normans,  Beroul  (c.  1150)  and 
Thomas  (c.  11 70),  of  which  we  possess  only  fragments,  and 
which  were  the  foundations,  respectively,  of  the  German 
poems  of  Eilhart  von  Oberge  and  of  Gottfried  von  Strassburg. 
A  lost  Tristan  poem  is  also  ascribed  to  Chretien  de  Troyes, 
and  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  used  by  the  writer, 
or  writers,  1  of  the  long  prose  Tristan,  upon  which  Malory 
largely  drew.  As  it  passed  through  the  hands  of  these  writers, 
the  Tristram  story,  like  the  rest,  was  subjected  to  the  inevitable 
process  of  chivalric  decoration;  but  it  has  managed  to  pre- 
serve better  than  the  others  its  bold  primitive  characteristics. 
Its  original  existence  in  the  form  of  scattered  popular  lays 
is,  to  some  extent,  attested  by  one  of  the  poems  of  Marie 
of  France — Le  Chevrefeuille  (The  Honeysuckle) — recording  a 
pretty  stratagem  of  Tristan  during  his  exile  from  King  Mark's 
court,  whereby  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  stolen  interview 
with  Iseult.  Nor  was  it  the  Tristram  legend  alone  that  was 
thus  preserved  in  popular  lays  from  a  period  anterior  to  that 
of  the  great  romantic  efflorescence  of  Arthurian  story.  Many 
isolated  poems  dealing  with  characters  and  incidents  subse- 
quently drawn  into  the  Arthurian  medley  must  have  been 
based  upon  traditions  popularised  by  the  rude  art  of  some 
obscure  minstrels,  or  story-tellers,  "Breton"  or  other.  One 
of  the  best  known  examples  of  such  poems  is  Marie  of  France's 
lay  of  Lanval,  a  Celtic  fairy-tale  quite  unconnected,  originally, 
with  the  Arthurian  court.  Even  more  ambitious  works,  such 
as  the  Chevalier  au  Lion,  or  Yvain,  and  the  Erec,  of  Chretien, 
were  almost  certainly  founded  upon  poems,  or  popular  tales, 
of  which  the  primitive  versions  have  been  irretrievably  lost. 
For  the  Welsh  prose  romances  of  The  Lady  of  the  Fountain  and 
of  Geraint — the  heroes  of  which,  Owein  and  Geraint,  corre- 
spond respectively  to  Chretien's  Yvain  and  Erec — while  re- 
sembling the  French  poems  in  their  main  incidents,  cannot  be 
satisfactorily  accounted  for  except  on  the  supposition  that  the 

>  The  names,  almost  certainly  fictitious,  of  Luces  de  Gast  and  of  Helie  de 
Borron  are  associated  with  the  authorship  of  the  prose  Tristan. 


Celtic  Literature  305 

stories  embodied  in  them  originally  existed  in  a  much  older 
and  simpler  form  than  that  in  which  they  are  presented  by 
Chretien. 

In  this  necessarily  cursory  review  of  an  extensive  and 
complicated  subject,  a  good  deal  has  been  claimed  for  Celtic 
sources  and  Celtic  influence;  and  it  may  not  be  out  of  place 
to  conclude  with  an  attempt  to  summarise,  very  briefly 
the  actual  debt  of  English  literature  to  the  earl}''  literature  of 
the  Celtic  peoples.  Upon  few  subjects  has  there  been,  in  our 
time,  so  much  vague  and  random  writing  as  upon  so-called 
Celtic  "traits"  and  "notes"  in  English  imaginative  literature. 
Renan  and  Matthew  Arnold,  in  two  famous  essays,  which 
in  their  time  rendered  a  real  ser\dce  to  letters  by  calling  atten- 
tion to  the  buried  literary  treasures  of  Wales  and  Ireland, 
set  a  fashion  of  speculating  and  theorising  about  "the  Celt" 
as  perilous  as  it  is  fascinating.  For,  after  all,  no  critical 
method  is  more  capable  of  abuse  than  the  process  of  aesthetic 
literary  analysis  which  seeks  to  distinguish  the  Celtic  from  the 
other  ingredients  in  the  genius  of  the  greater  English  writers, 
and  which  sounds  Shakespeare,  or  Byron,  or  Keats  for  the 
Celtic  "note."  While  there  is  no  difficulty  about  admitting 
that  the  authentic  literature  of  the  Celts  reveals  a  "  sentiment," 
a  "  natural  magic,"  a  "  turn  for  style,"  and  even  a  "  Pindarism" 
and  a  "Titanism,"  ^  which  are  all  its  own,  it  is  a  very  different 
matter  to  assign  a  Celtic  source  to  the  supposed  equivalents 
of  these  things  in  later  English  poetry.  An  example  of  the 
peculiar  dangers  besetting  such  speculations  is  furnished 
by  Matthew  Arnold's  own  observations  about  Macpherson 
and  the  Celtic  "melancholy."  The  Ossianic  poems,  whatever 
their  original  Gaelic  sources  may  have  been,  reflect  far  more 
of  the  dour  melancholy  peculiar  to  the  middle  eighteenth 
century  than  of  anything  really  characteristic  of  the  primitive 
Celtic  temperament.  Matthew  Arnold  is,  indeed,  able  to 
parallel  the  laments  over  the  desolation  of  the  halls  of  Balclutha 
and  so  on,  with  extracts  from  the  old  Welsh  poet  Ll^n^^arch 
Hen.  But  even  Llywarch's  anguish  as  he  contemplates  the 
vanished  glories  of  the  hall  of  Kyndylan  is  by  no  means  peculiar 

'These  are  some  of  Matthew  Arnold's  "notes"  of  the  Celtic  genius  in    The 
Study  of  Celtic  Literature. 

VOL.  I.— 20. 


3o6  The  Arthurian  Legend 

to  the  Celt.  The  same  melancholy  vein  is  found  in  the  early 
poetry  of  other  races;  it  appears  in  the  Old  English  poems 
of  The  Seafarer  and  The  Wanderer,  and  even  in  the  ancient 
poetry  of  the  east,  for 

They  say  the  Lion  and  the  Lizard  keep 

The  Courts  where  Jamshyd  gloried  and  drank  deep, 

And  Bahram,  that  great  Hunter — the  Wild  Ass 
Stamps  o'er  his  Head  but  cannot  break  his  Sleep. 

The  direct  influence  of  Celtic  literature  upon  that  of  Eng- 
land amounts,  on  any  strict  computation,  to  very  little.  And 
this  is  only  natural  when  we  remember  that  the  two  languages 
in  which  the  chief  monuments  of  that  literature  are  preserved 
■ — Welsh  and  Irish — present  difficulties  which  only  a  few  very 
intrepid  English  linguists  have  had  the  courage  and  the 
patience  to  surmount.  Thus  it  happens,  for  example,  that  the 
greatest  of  all  the  medieval  Welsh  poets — Davyd  ap  Gwilym, 
a  contemporary  of  Chaucer — is  only  known  to  English  readers 
by  fragmentary  notices,  and  indifferent  translations,  supplied 
by  George  Borrow.  A  few  tantalising,  and  freely  translated, 
scraps — for  they  are  nothing  more — from  the  Welsh  bards  are 
due  to  Gray;  while  Thomas  Love  Peacock  has  treated,  in 
his  own  peculiar  vein  of  sardonic  humour,  themes  borrowed 
from  ancient  Welsh  poetry  and  tradition.  Above  all,  there  re- 
mains the  singularly  graceful  translation  of  the  Welsh  Mabi- 
nogion  by  Lady  Charlotte  Guest.  The  literature  of  Ireland 
has,  at  a  quite  recent  date,  been  much  better  served  by  trans- 
lators than  that  of  Wales,  and  several  admirable  English 
versions  of  Irish  poems  and  prose  tales  are  making  their 
influence  felt  upon  the  literature  of  the  day.  So  far,  however, 
as  the  older  Celtic  literature  is  concerned,  it  is  not  so  much 
its  form  that  has  told  to  any  appreciable  extent  upon  English 
writers  as  its  themes  and  its  spirit.  The  main  channel  of  this 
undoubted  Celtic  influence  was  that  afforded  by  the  Arthurian 
and  its  kindred  legends.  The  popularity  of  the  "matter  of 
Britain"  came  about  at  a  time  when  there  was,  comparatively, 
much  more  intimate  literary  commerce  between  the  European 
nations  than  there  is  now.  The  Normans  succeeded  in  bringing- 
Britain  and  France  at  least  into  much  closer  contact  than  has 
ever    existed  between  them  since;  and  it  was  France    that 


Celtic  Literature         ,  307 

controlled  the  literary  destinies  of  Europe  during  the  great 
romantic  period  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  It 
would  be  rash  to  endeavour  to  apportion  between  the  south  of 
France  and  the  northern  "  Celtic  fringe"  their  respective  contri- 
butions to  all  that  is  denoted  by  the  ideals  of  chivalry.  But, 
in  the  mist  which  still  overhangs  the  subject,  we  do  seem  to  dis- 
cern with  fair  distinctness  that  it  was  the  conjunction  of  these 
apparently  diverse  racial  tendencies,  directed  by  the  diplomatic 
genius  of  the  Normans,  that  gave  us  our  vast  and  picturesque 
body  of  Arthurian  romance.  Through  all  the  various  strains 
of  Arthurian  story  we  hear 

the  horns  of  Elfland  faintly  blowing; 

and  it  is  quite  possible  that,  to  the  Celtic  wonderland,  with 
its  fables  of  "the  little  people,"  we  owe  much  of  the  fairy-lore 
which  has,  through  Shakespeare  and  other  poets  of  lower 
degree,  enriched  the  literature  of  England.  Chaucer,  at  any 
rate,  seemed  to  have  very  little  doubt  about  it,  for  he  links 
all  that  he  knew,  or  cared  to  know,  about  the  Arthurian  stories 
with  his  recollections  of  the  fairy  world : 

In  th'  olde  dayes  of  the  king  Arthour, 
Of  which  that  Britons  speken  greet  honour, 
Al  was  this  land  fulfild  of  fayerye: 
The  elf-queen,  with  hir  joly  companye 
Daunced  ful  ofte  in  many  a  grene  made. 

So  let  us  believe,  with  the  poets,  and  leave  the  British  Arthur 
in  his  unquestioned  place  as  the  supreme  king  of  fairy-land. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Metrical   Romances,    1 200- 1 500 


Men  speke  of  romances  of  prys, 
Of  Horn  child  and  of  Ypotys, 

Of  Bevis  and  sir  Gy, 
Of  sir  Libeux  and  Pleyn-damour; 
But  sir  T  ho  pas,  he  bereth  the  flour 
Of  royal  chivalry. 


Sir  Thopas. 


IT  is  hard  to  understand  the  process  of  change  that  made 
so  much  difference  between  Old  and  Middle  English  story- 
telling. At  first,  one  is  inclined  to  account  for  it  by  the 
Norman  conquest,  and,  no  doubt,  that  is  one  of  the  factors; 
the  degradation  of  the  English  and  their  language  naturally  led 
to  a  more  popular  and  vulgar  sort  of  narrative  literature. 
Beowulf  was  composed  for  persons  of  quality,  Havelok  for  the 
common  people.  Old  English  narrative  poetry  was,  in  its  day, 
the  best  obtainable;  English  metrical  romances  were  known 
by  the  authors,  vendors  and  consumers  of  them  to  be  inferior 
to  the  best,  i.e.  to  the  French;  and,  consequently,  there  is  a 
rustic,  uncourtly  air  about  them.  Their  demeanour  is  often 
lumbering,  and  they  are  sometimes  conscious  of  it.  The 
English  look  to  the  French  for  instruction  in  good  manners 
and  in  the  kinds  of  literature  that  belong  properly  to  a  court. 
In  the  old  times  before  the  Conquest  they  had  the  older 
courtliness  which  was  their  own,  and  which  is  represented 
in  the  Old  English  epic  remains,  Beowulf,  Waldhere  and  other 
poems. 

But  it  will  not  do  to  regard  the  Conquest  as  a  full  and 
complete  explanation  of  the  difference,  because  the  same  kind 

.308 


From  Old  to  Middle  English  309 

of  change  is  found  in  other  Teutonic  countries,  where  there 
was  no  poUtical  conquest.  In  Denmark  and  Sweden  and 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands  there  are  to  be  found  rhyming 
romances  of  the  same  sort  as  the  English,  written  about  the 
same  time.  In  Gennany,  it  is  true,  the  romantic  school  of 
the  early  thirteenth  century  is  much  more  refined  than  any- 
thing in  England  before  the  days  of  Chaucer  and  Gower;  but 
besides  the  narrative  work  of  the  great  German  poets  of  that 
time  there  are  many  riming  tales  that  may  very  well  be  com- 
pared with  English  popular  romances;  while  in  Denmark  and 
Sweden  there  is  a  still  closer  likeness  to  England.  There  the 
riming  narrative  work  is  not  a  bit  more  regular  or  courtly 
than  in  England;  there  is  the  same  kind  of  easy,  shambling 
verse,  the  same  sort  of  bad  spelling,  the  same  want  of  literary 
standard.  But  in  those  countries  there  was  no  Norman  con- 
quest; so  that  it  will  not  do  to  make  the  political  condition  of 
the  English  accountable  for  the  manners  of  their  popular 
literature.  The  Norman  conquest  helped,  no  doubt,  in  the 
depression  of  English  literature,  but  like  things  happened  in 
other  coxmtries  without  a  foreign  conqueror.  Just  as  all  the 
Teutonic  languages  (except  that  of  Iceland)  pass  from  the 
Old  to  the  Middle  stage,  so  in  literature  there  is  a  parallel  move- 
ment in  Germany,  England,  and  Denmark  from  an  earlier  to 
a  later  medieval  type.  In  all  the  Teutonic  countries,  though 
not  at  the  same  time  in  all,  there  was  a  change  of  taste  and 
fashion  which  abandoned  old  epic  themes  and  native  forms 
of  verse  for  new  subjects  and  for  riming  measures.  Thir- 
meant  a  great  disturbance  and  confusion  of  literary  principles 
and  traditions;  hence,  much  of  the  new  literature  w^as  ex- 
perimental and  undiscipHned.  It  took  long  for  the  nations  to 
find  a  literary  standard.  The  Germans  attained  it  about  1 200  ; 
the  English  in  the  time  of  Chaucer;  the  Danes  and  Swedes  not 
until  long  after  the  close  of  the  IMiddle  Ages.  The  progress  from 
Old  to  Middle  English  narrative  verse  is  not  to  be  understood 
from  a  consideration  of  England  alone;  it  is  part  of  a  general 
change  in  European  fashions,  a  new  mixture  of  Teutonic  and 
Roman  elements,  not  to  speak  of  Celtic  and  oriental  strains 
in  the  blending. 

In  the  history  of  English  narrative  poetry  there  is  a  great 
gap  of  two  centuries  between  The  Battle  of  Maldon  and  Laya- 


3IO  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

mon's  Brut,  with  very  little  to  fill  it  or  even  to  show  what  sort 
of  things  have  been  lost,  what  varieties  of  story-telling  amused 
the  English  in  the  reign  of  Harold  Godwinsson  or  of  Henry 
I.  In  France,  on  the  other  hand,  these  centuries  are  rich 
in  story  books  still  extant;  and,  as  the  English  metrical  ro- 
mances depend  very  largely  upon  the  French,  the  history  of 
them  may  to  some  extent  be  explained  from  French  history; 
though  often  more  by  way  of  contrast  than  of  resemblance. 

In  France,  the  twelfth  century  witnessed  a  very  remark- 
able change  of  taste  in  stories  which  spread  over  all  Europe 
and  affected  the  English,  the  Germans,  and  other  peoples  in 
different  ways.  The  old  national  epics,  the  chansons  de  geste, 
were  displaced  by  a  new  romantic  school,  which  triumphed 
over  the  old  like  a  young  Olympian  dynasty  over  Saturn  and 
his  peers,  or  like  the  new  comedy  of  the  restoration  over  the 
last  Elizabethans.  The  Chansons  de  geste  were  meant  for 
the  hall,  for  Homeric  recitation  after  supper;  the  new  ro- 
mances were  intended  to  be  read  in  my  lady's  bower;  they 
were  for  summer  leisure  and  daylight,  as  in  the  pretty  scene 
described  by  Chretien  de  Troyes  in  his  Chevalier  au  Lion,  and 
translated  into  English: 

Thurgh  the  hal  sir  Ywain  gase 

Intil  ane  orchard,  playn  pase; 

His  maiden  with  him  ledes  he: 

He  fand  a  knyght,  under  a  tre, 

Opon  a  clath  of  gold  he  lay; 

Byfor  him  sat  a  ful  fayr  may; 

A  lady  sat  with  tham  in  fere. 

The  mayden  red,  at  thai  myght  here, 

A  real  romance  in  that  place, 

But  I  ne  wote  of  wham  it  was; 

Sho  was  but  fiftene  yeres  aide. 

The  knyght  was  lorde  of  al  that  halde, 

And  that  mayden  was  his  ayre ; 

She  was  both  gracious  gode  and  fayre.^ 

These  French  romances  were  dedicated  to  noble  ladies,  and 
represented  everything  that  was  most  refined  and  elegant  in 
the  life  of  the  twelfth  century.  Furthermore,  like  other  late 
romantic  schools,  like  Scott  and  Victor  Hugo,  authors  travelled 

^  Ywain  and  Gawain,  11.  3081  sqq. 


French  Influences  311 

wide  for  their  subjects.  The  old  French  poet's  well-known 
division  of  stories  according  to  the  three  "matters" — the 
"matter  of  France,"  the  "matter  of  Britain"  and  the  "matter 
of  Rome  the  great  "^ — very  imperfectly  sums  up  the  riches 
and  the  variety  of  French  romantic  themes,  even  when  it  is 
understood  that  the  "matter  of  Rome"  includes  the  whole  of 
antiquity,  the  tales  of  Thebes  and  Troy,  the  wars  of  Alexander. 
It  is  true  that  (as  in  later  romantic  schools)  the  variety  of 
scene  and  costume  does  not  always  prevent  monotony.  The 
romantic  hero  may  be  a  knight  of  king  Arthur's  court,  may 
take  his  name  from  Protesilaus  or  Palaemon  or  Archytas ;  the 
scene  in  one  story  may  be  Logres  or  Lyonesse,  in  another 
Greece  or  Calabria;  it  does  not  really  make  much  difference. 
So  Mrs.  Radcliffe's  heroes,  or  Victor  Hugo's,  are  of  the  same 
sort,  whether  their  scene  be  in  the  Pyrenees  or  in  Italy.  But, 
nevertheless,  the  freedom  of  wandering  over  the  world  in 
search  of  plots  and  characters  was  exhilarating  and  inspiriting 
in  the  twelfth  century  in  France;  there  was  great  industry 
in  fiction,  a  stirring  literary  competition.  The  following  ages 
very  largely  lived  on  the  products  of  it,  to  satisfy  their  own 
wants  in  the  way  of  romance. 

The  leaders  of  this  school,  Benoit  de  Ste.  More  and  Chretien 
de  Troyes,  with  their  followers,  were  courtly  persons,  authors 
of  fashionable  novels,  bent  on  putting  into  their  work  the 
spirit  and  all  the  graces  of  gentle  conversation  as  it  was  then 
understood,  more  particularly  the  refinements  of  amatory 
sentiment,  such  as  was  allegorised  in  the  next  century  in  The 
Romaunt  of  the  Rose.  This  sort  of  thing  could  not  be  equally 
appreciated  or  appropriated  in  all  countries.  Some  people 
understood  it,  others  could  not.  The  great  houses  of  Germany 
were  very  quick  to  learn  from  French  masters  and  to  rival  them 
in  their  own  line.  Hartmann  von  Aue  translated  Chretien 
freely — the  romance  of  Enid,  the  tale  of  Yvain.  Wolfram 
von  Eschenbach  in  his  Parzival  may  borrow  the  substance, 
but  the  rendering,  the  spirit,  is  his  own,  removed  far  from 
any  danger  of  comparison  with  the  French  school,  because 
it  has  a  different  kind  of  nobility.     In  England  things  were 

»  A^^  sont  que  trois  tnatikres  d,  nul  Jtome  attendant, 
De  Fratice  et  de  Bretaigne  et  de  Rome  la  grant. 

Jean  Bodel,  Clianson  de  Saisnes. 


312  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

otherwise,  and  it  was  not  till  the  age  of  Chaucer  and  Gower 
,  /  that  there  was  any  English  narrative  work  of  the  finer  sort 
with  the  right  courtly  good  manners  and  a  proper  interest  in 
sentimental  themes.  The  English  of  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries  were  generally  unable  to  make  much 
of  the  "finer  shades"  in  their  French  authors.  They  can 
dispose  of  romantic  plots  and  adventures,  they  are  never  tired 
of  stories;  but  they  have  difficulty  in  following  the  eloquent 
monologues  of  passionate  damsels ;  the  elegant  French  phrasing 
annoying  them  just  as  one  of  the  later  French  successors  of 
Chretien,  the  heroic  romance  of  Le  Grand  Cyrus,  affected 
Major  Bellenden.  Even  the  more  ambitious  of  the  English 
romances  generally  fall  far  short  of  the  French  and  cannot 
keep  up  with  their  elaborate  play  of  rhetoric  and  emotion. 
There  is  only  one  English  version  of  a  romance  by  Chretien, 
.1  Ywain  and  Gawain.  This  is  comparatively  late;  it  belongs  to 
j;)  the  time  of  Chaucer;  it  is  not  rude;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  one  of 

the  most  accomplished  of  all  the  riming  tales  outside  the  work 
of  Chaucer  and  Gower.  But  it  cuts  short  the  long  speeches  of 
the  original.  Chretien's  Yvain  {Le  Chevalier  au  Lion)  has  68 1 8 
lines ;  the  English  version  4032.  Hartmann,  on  the  other  hand, 
spins  his  story  out  to  8166  lines,  being  thoroughly  possessed 
with  admiration  of  the  French  ways  of  thinking.  The  Eng- 
lish romances  of  Ipomedon  (there  are  two  in  rime,  besides 
a  prose  version)  show  w^ell  the  difficulties  and  discrepancies 
as  will  be  explained  later. 

William  of  Palerne  is  an  example  of  a  different  sort,  show- 
ing how  hard  it  was  for  the  English,  even  as  late  as  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  to  understand  and  translate  the 
work  of  the  French  romantic  school.  The  English  poet  takes 
up  the  French  Guillaume  de  Palerme,  a  sophisticated,  senti- 
mental story  written  in  the  fluent,  unemphatic,  clear  style 
which  perhaps  only  Gower  could  rightly  reproduce  in  English. 
This  is  turned  into  alliterative  verse,  with  rather  strange 
results,  the  rhetoric  of  the  English  school  being  utterly  different 
from  the  French :  quaint  in  diction,  inclined  to  be  violent  and 
extravagant,  very  effective  in  satirical  passages  (as  Piers 
Plowman  was  to  show)  or  in  battle  scenes  (as  in  the  Morte 
Arthure),  but  not  well  adapted  for  polite  and  conventional 
literature.     The  alliterative  poets  were  justified  when  they 


Translator's  Difficulties 


0'v> 


took  their  own  way  and  did  not  try  to  compete  with  the 
French.  Their  greatest  work  in  romance  is  Sir  Gawayne  and 
the  Grene  Knight,  written  by  a  man  who  understood  his  bus- 
ness  and  produced  new  effects,  original,  imaginati\'e,  without 
trying  to  copy  the  manner  of  the  French  artists. 

At  the  same  time,  while  the  great,  the  overruling,  French 
influence  is  to  be  found  in  the  ambitious  literary  work  of 
Chretien  de  Troyes  and  his  peers,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
there  was  also  a  simpler  but  still  graceful  kind  of  French 
romance  with  which  the  English  translators  had  more  success. 
This  is  best  represented  in  the  work  of  Marie  de  France;  and, 
in  English,  by  the  shorter  romances  which  profess  to  be  taken 
from  Breton  lays,  such  as  Latinfal,  Orfeo  and  the  Lai  le  Freine. 
Here,  the  scale  is  smaller,  and  there  is  no  superabundance  of 
monologue  and  sentimental  digression.  The  clear  lines  of  the 
original  could  be  followed  by  the  English  without  too  much 
difficulty;  for  the  English,  though  long  inferior  to  the  French 
in  subtlety,  were  not  bunglers,  except  when  they  ventured  on 
unfamiliar  ground  without  the  proper  education. 

Briefly  and  roughly,  the  history  of  the  English  romances 
might  be  put  in  this  wa}^:  About  the  year  1200  French  lit- 
erature came  to  dominate  the  whole  of  Christendom,  especially 
in  the  matter  of  stories;  not  only  sending  abroad  the  French 
tales  of  Charlemagne  and  Roland,  but  importing  plots,  scenery 
and  so  forth,  from  many  lands,  Wales  and  Britanny,  Greece 
and  the  further  east,  and  giving  new  French  forms  to  them, 
which  were  admired  and,  as  far  as  possible,  borrowed  by 
foreign  nations,  according  to  their  several  tastes  and  abilities. 
The  English  took  a  large  share  in  this  trade.  Generally  speak- 
ing, their  taste  was  easily  satisfied.  What  they  wanted  was 
adventures:  slaughter  of  Saracens,  fights  with  dragons  and 
giants,  rightful  heirs  getting  their  own  again,  innocent  prin- 
cesses championed  against  their  felon  adversaries.  Such 
commodities  were  purveyed  by  popular  authors,  who  adapted 
from  the  French  what  suited  them  and  left  out  the  things  in 
which  the  French  authors  were  most  interested,  viz.  the  orna- 
mental passages.  The  English  romance  writers  worked  for 
common  minstrels  and  their  audiences,  and  were  not  particular 
about  their  style.  They  used,  as  a  rule,  either  short  couplets 
or  some  variety  of  that  simple  stanza  which  is  better  known 


314  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

to  most  readers  from  Sir  Thopas  than  from  Horn  Childe  or  Sir 
Libeaus.  Sir  Thopas  illustrates  and  summarises,  in  parody, 
all  the  ways  of  the  popular  romance  for  a  long  time  before 
Chaucer  and  for  long  after  his  death.  Of  course  there  are  many 
differences  in  particular  cases,  and  Sir  Thopas,  with  all  his 
virtue,  does  not  so  far  outshine  the  others  as  to  make  them 
indistinguishable.  Beves  is  not  exactly  the  same  kind  of  thing 
as  Sir  Guy,  and  the  story  of  Sir  Libeaus  has  merits  of  its  own 
not  to  be  confounded  with  those  of  the  other  heroes.  Never- 
theless, they  are  all  of  one  kind,  and  their  style  is  popular  and 
hackneyed.  The  authors  were  well  enough  pleased  to  have  it 
so;  they  did  not  attempt  to  rival  their  eminent  French  masters. 
But  there  were  exceptions.  One  finds  ambition  at  work  in 
English  poets  even  in  days  when  French  literature  might  have 
appeared  so  strong  and  so  exalted  as  to  dishearten  any  mere 
English  competitor.  The  English  Sir  Tristrem  is  a  specimen 
of  literary  vanity ;  the  English  author  is  determined  to  improve 
upon  his  original,  and  turns  the  simple  verse  of  his  French 
book  into  rather  elaborate  lyrical  stanzas.  And,  again,  it  was 
sometimes  possible  for  an  Englishman  to  write  gracefully 
enough  without  conceit  or  emphasis;  as  in  Ywain  and  Gawain, 
already  quoted.  And  the  alliterative  romances  are  in  a  class 
by  themselves. 

Chaucer  and  Gower  disturb  the  progress  of  the  popular 
romance,  yet  not  so  much  as  one  might  expect.  Chaucer  and 
Gower,  each  in  his  own  way,  had  challenged  the  French  on  their 

!  own  ground;  they  had  written  English  verse  which  might  be 
approved  by  French  standards;  they  had  given  to  English 
verse  the  peculiar  French  qualities  of  ease  and  grace  and 
urbanity.  A  reader  to  whom  the  fifteenth  century  was  un- 
known would,  naturally,  look  for  some  such  consequences  as 
followed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II  from  the  work  of  Dry  den 
and  his  contemporaries — a  disabling  of  the  older  schools,  and 
a  complete  revolution  in  taste.  But,  for  whatever  reason,  this 
was  not  what  actually  followed  the  age  of  Chaucer.     The 

*  fifteenth  century,  except  for  the  fact  that  the  anarchy  of 
dialects  is  reduced  to  some  order,  is  as  far  from  any  literary 
good  government  as  the  age  before  Chaucer.  It  is  rather 
worse,  indeed,  on  account  of  the  weaker  brethren  in  the 
Chaucerian  school  who  only  add  to  the  confusion.     And  the 


Matter  and  Form  315 

popular  romances  go  on  very  much  as  before,  do\\'n  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  e\en  further.  The  lay  of  the  last 
minstrel  is  described  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  prose,  in  a  note 
to  Sir  Tristrem: 

Some  traces  of  this  custom  remained  in  Scotland  till  of  late 
years.  A  satire  on  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  published  about  the 
time  of  his  death,  is  said  to  be  composed  to  the  tune  of  Graysteel, 
a  noted  romance  reprinted  at  Aberdeen  so  late  as  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century.  Within  the  memory  of  man,  an  old  person  used 
to  perambulate  the  streets  of  Edinburgh  singing,  in  a  monotonous 
cadence,  the  tale  of  Rosewal  and  Lilian,  which  is,  in  all  the  forms, 
a  metrical  romance  of  chivalry. 

It  is  possible  to  classify  the  romances  according  to  their 
sources  and  their  subjects,  though,  as  has  been  already  re- 
marked, the  difference  of  scenery  does  not  always  make  much 
difference  in  the  character  of  the  stories.  The  English  varieties 
depend  so  closely  on  the  French  that  one  must  go  to  French 
literary  history  for  guidance.  The  whole  subject  has  been  so 
clearly  summarised  and  explained  in  the  French  Medieval 
Literature  of  Gaston  Paris  ^  that  it  is  scarcely  necessary  here 
to  repeat  even  the  general  facts.  But  of  course,  although 
the  subjects  are  the  same,  the  English  point  of  view  is  different ; 
especially  in  the  following  respects : 

The  "matter  of  France"  includes  the  subjects  of  the  old 
French  epics.  These,  being  national,  could  not  bear  exporta- 
tion so  well  as  some  of  the  other  "matters."  It  is  only  in 
France  that  the  Song  of  Roland  can  be  thoroughly  understood 
and  valued.  Yet  Roland  and  Charlemagne  were  honoured 
beyond  the  Alps  and  beyond  the  sea.  The  Karlamagnus 
Saga  is  a  large  book  written  in  Norway  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  bringing  together  in  a  prose  version  all  the  chief  stories 
of  the  cycle.  One  section,  Olif  and  Landres,  was  found  "  in 
the  English  tongue  in  Scotland"  by  a  Nor\vegian  envoy  who 
went  there  in  1284  after  the  death  of  king  Alexander  III. 
Roland  was  almost  as  popular  in  Italy  as  in  France.  He 
appears  also  in  English,  though  not  to  very  great  advantage. 
The  favourite  story  from  the  French  epics  was  that  of  Oliver 

^La  Litterature  frangaise  au  moyen  dge  (with  bibliography);  also  Esqtiisse 
historiqtie  de  la  litt.  jr.  au  moyen  dge;  English  translation  of  this  latter,  Dent, 
1903. 


3i6  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

and  Fierabras,  where  the  motive  is  not  so  much  French  patriot- 
ism as  the  opposition  between  Christian  and  infidel. 

In  the  "matter  of  Britain"  the  English  had  a  better  right 
to  share.  They  accepted  at  once  the  history  of  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth  and  made  king  Arthur  into  an  English  national 
hero,  the  British  counterpart  of  Charlemagne.  The  alliterative 
Morte  Arthur e,  derived  from  Geoffrey,  is  a  kind  of  political 
epic,  with  allusions  to  contemporary  history  and  the  wars  of 
Edward  III,  as  George  Neilson  has  sufficiently  proved.  ^  This 
touch  of  allegory  which  one  need  not  be  afraid  to  compare 
with  the  purpose  of  the  Aeneid  or  of  The  Faerie  Q.ueene,  makes 
it  unlike  most  other  medieval  romances;  the  pretence  of 
solidity  and  historical  truth  in  Geoffrey  is  not  suitable  for 
mere  romantic  purposes.  Quite  different  is  the  Arthur  who 
sits  waiting  for  adventures,  being  "somewhat  child-geared," 
as  the  poet  of  Sir  Gawayne  says.  In  most  of  the  stories  Arthur 
is  very  unlike  the  great  imperial  monarch  and  conqueror 
as  presented  by  Geoffrey  and  his  followers.  He  has  nothing 
particular  to  do,  except  to  be  present  at  the  beginning  and 
end  of  the  story ;  the  hero  is  Sir  Perceval,  Sir  Ywain,  Sir  Gawain, 
or  the  Fair  Knight  Unknown  (Sir  Libeaus) ;  unfortunately 
not  Sir  Erec  (Geraint)  in  any  extant  English  poem  before 
Tennyson.  In  this  second  order,  the  proper  Arthurian  ro- 
mances as  distinguished  from  the  versions  or  adaptations  of 
Geoffrey,  England  had  something  to  claim  even  before  the 
English  rimers  began  their  work ;  for  some  of  the  French  poems 
certainly,  and  probably  many  now  lost,  were  written  in 
England.  This  is  a  debatable  and  difficult  part  of  literary 
history;  but,  at  any  rate,  it  is  plain  that  the  more  elaborate 
French  Arthurian  romances  were  not  the  only  authorities 
for  the  English  tales.  Chretien's  Yvain  ii\  translated  into 
English;  but  the  French  romance  of  The  Fair  Unknown  is 
probably  not  the  original  of  the  English  story  of  Sir  Libeaus, 
which,  like  the  old  Italian  version,  would  seem  to  have  had 
a  simpler  and  earlier  form  to  work  upon.  Likewise,  the  En- 
glish Sir  Percevall  must,  surely,  come  from  something  older 
and  less  complicated  than  Chretien's  Conte  del  Graal.  It  is 
at  least  a  fair  conjecture  that  these  two  romances  belong  to  an 
earlier  type,  such  as  may  have  been  hawked  about  in  England 

1  Huchown  of  the  Awle  Ryale,  Glasgow,  1902,  pp.  59-66. 


Sources  and  Subjects  3^7 

by  French  or  French-speaking  minstrels;  and,  without  any 
conjecture  at  all,  they  are  different  in  their  plots  (not  merely 
in  their  style)  from  the  French  work  of  Renaud  de  Beaujeu 
in  the  one  case,  and  Chretien  de  Troyes  in  the  other.  Sir 
Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight,  again,  cannot  be  referred  to 
any  known  French  book  for  its  original ;  and,  in  this  and  other 
ways,  the  English  rendering  of  the  "matter  of  Britain"  goes 
beyond  the  French,  or,  to  be  more  precise,  is  found  to  differ 
from  the  existing  French  documents. 

The  "  matter  of  Rome  the  great,"  that  is,  classical  antiquity, 
is  well  represented  in  English.  There  are  several  poems  in 
rime  and  alliterative  verse  on  Alexander  and  on  Troy,  some 
of  them  being  fragmentary.  The  tale  of  Thebes,  though  often 
referred  to,  does  not  appear  fully  told  till  Lydgate  took  it  up, 
nor  the  romantic  version  of  the  Aeneid  (Roman  d' Eneas)  before 
Caxton's  prose. 

The  classification  under  the  three  "matters"  of  France, 
Britain  and  Rome  is  not  exhaustive ;  there  are  many  romances 
which  fall  outside  these  limits.  Some  of  them  are  due  to 
French  invention ;  for  the  twelfth  century  romantic  school  was 
not  content  always  to  follow  merely  traditional  fables;  they 
drew  largely  on  older  stories,  fairy  tales  and  relics  of  mythology ; 
but,  sometimes,  they  tried  to  be  original  and  at  least  succeeded 
in  making  fresh  combinations,  like  a  modern  novelist  w4th  his 
professional  machinery.  Perhaps  the  English  poet  of  Sir 
Gawayne  may  have  worked  in  this  way,  not  founding  his  poem 
upon  any  one  particular  romance,  but  taking  incidents  from 
older  stories  and  arranging  them  to  suit  his  purpose.  In 
French,  the  Ipomedon  of  Hue  de  Rotelande  is  an  excellent 
specimen  of  what  may  be  called  the  secondary  order  of  ro- 
mance, as  cultivated  by  the  best  practitioners.  The  author's 
method  is  not  hard  to  understand.  He  is  competing  w4th 
the  recognised  and  successful  artists ;  with  Chretien  de  Troyes. 
He  does  not  trouble  himself  to  find  a  Breton  lay,  but  (like 
an  Elizabethan  dramatist  with  no  Spanish  or  Italian  novel  at 
hand)  sets  himself  to  spin  his  own  yarn.  He  has  all  the  proper 
sentiments,  and  his  rhetoric  and  rimes  are  easy  work  for  him. 
For  theme,  he  takes  the  proud  young  lady  and  the  devoted 
lover;  the  true  love  beginning  "in  her  absence,"  as  the  Irish 
story-teller  expressed  it,  before  he  has  ever  seen  the  princess; 


3i8  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

telling  of  his  faithful  service  in  disguise,  his  apparent  slackness 
in  chivalry,  his  real  prowess  when  he  "  bears  the  gree"  in  three 
days  of  tournament,  with  three  several  suits  of  armour,  the 
white,  the  red  and  the  black.  The  incidents  are  not  exactly 
new;  but  it  is  a  good  novel  of  its  kind,  and  successful,  as  the 
English  versions  prove,  for  longer  than  one  season.  Hue  de 
Rotelande  takes  some  trouble  about  his  details.  He  does 
not  (like  Chretien  in  his  Cliges)  attach  his  invention  to  the 
court  of  Arthur.  He  leaves  Britain  for  new  ground,  and  puts 
his  scene  in  Apulia  and  Calabria — which  might  as  well  have 
been  Illyria  or  Bohemia.  And  he  does  not  imitate  the  names 
of  the  Round  Table ;  his  names  are  Greek,  his  hero  is  Hippome- 
don.  In  the  same  way  Boccaccio,  or  his  lost  French  original, 
took  Greek  names  for  his  story  of  Palamon,  and  let  it  grow 
out  of  the  wars  of  Thebes.  So  also  Parthenopex  de  Blois, 
who  was  translated  into  English  (Partonope) ,  is  Parthenopaeus. 
William  of  Palerne,  without  his  classical  prestige  of  name, 
is  another  example  of  the  invented  love-story,  made  by  re- 
arranging the  favourite  commonplaces.  Another  sentimental 
romance,  Amadas  and  Ydoine,  was  well  known  in  England, 
as  is  proved  by  many  allusions,  though  no  English  version  is 
extant;  the  poem  was  first  composed,  like  Ipomedon,  in  Anglo- 
French.  ^ 

Further,  there  were  many  sources  besides  Britain  and  Rome 
for  authors  in  want  of  a  plot.  The  far  east  began  very  early  to 
tell  upon  western  imaginations,  not  only  through  the  mangels  of 
Alexander  in  India,  but  in  many  and  various  separate  stories. 
One  of  the  best  of  these,  and  one  of  the  first,  as  it  happens,  in 
the  list  of  English  romances  is  Flores  and  Blancheflour.  It 
was  ages  before  The  Arabian  Nights  were  known,  but  this  is 
just  such  a  story  as  may  be  found  there,  with  likenesses  also 
to  the  common  form  of  the  Greek  romances,  the  adventures  of 
the  two  young  lovers  cruelly  separated.  By  a  curious  process 
it  was  turned,  in  the  Filocolo  of  Boccaccio,  to  a  shape  like  that 
of  Greek  romance,  though  without  any  direct  knowledge  of 
Greek  authors.  The  Seven  Sages  of  Rome  may  count  among 
the  romances;  it  is  an  oriental  group  of  stories  in  a  set- 
ting, like  The  Arabian  Nights — a  pattern  followed  in  the 
Decameron,  in  Confessio  Amantis  and  in  The  Canterbury  Tales. 

>  Gaston  Paris  in  An  English  Miscellany,  Oxford,  1906,  p.  386. 


Sources  and  Subjects  3^9 

Barlaam  and  Josaphat  is  the  story  of  the  Buddha, 
and  Robert  of  Sicily,  the  "  proud  king, "  has  been 
traced  back  to  a  similar  origin.  YpoHs  (rather  oddly- 
placed  along  with  Horn  and  the  others  in  Sir  Thopas) 
is  Epictetus;  the  story  is  hardly  a  romance,  it  is  more 
like  a  legend.  But  the  difference  between  romance  and 
legend  is  not  always  very  deep;  and  one  is  reminded 
that  Greek  and  eastern  romantic  plots  and  ideas  had 
come  into  England  long  before,  in  the  Old  English  Saints' 
Lives. 

There  is  another  group,  represented,  indeed,  in  French, 
but  not  in  the  same  way  as  the  others.  It  contains  The 
Gest  of  King  Horn  and  The  Lay  of  Havelok  the  Dane;  both  of 
these  appear  in  French,  but  it  is  improbable  that  any  French 
version  was  the  origin  of  the  English.  These  are  northern 
stories ;  in  the  case  of  Havelok  there  is  fair  historical  proof 
that  the  foundation  of  the  whole  story  lies  in  the  adven- 
tures of  Anlaf  Cuaran,  who  fought  at  Brunanburh;  "  Havelok," 
like  "Aulay,"  being  a  Celtic  corruption  of  the  Scandinavian 
Anlaf  or  Olaf. 

In  Horn  it  is  not  so  easy  to  find  a  definite  historical  begin- 
ning; it  has  been  suggested  that  the  original  Horn  w^as  Horm, 
a  Danish  viking  of  the  ninth  century  who  fought  for  the  Irish 
king  Cearbhall,  as  Horn  helped  King  Thurston  in  Ireland 
against  the  Payns,  i.e.  the  heathen  invaders  with  their  giant 
champion.  Also  it  is  believed  that  Thurston,  in  the  romance, 
may  be  derived  from  the  Norwegian  leader  Thorstein  the 
Red,  who  married  a  granddaughter  of  Cearbhall.  But, 
whatever  the  obscure  truth  may  be,  the  general  fact  is  not 
doubtful  that  Horn's  wanderings  and  adventures  are  placed 
in  scenery  arid  conditions  resembling  those  of  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries  in  the  relations  between  Britain  and  Ireland. 
Like  Havelok,  the  story  probably  comes  from  the  Scandinavian 
settlers  in  England ;  like  Havelok,  it  passed  to  the  French,  but 
the  French  versions -are  not  the  sources  of  the  English.  There 
must  have  been  other  such  native  stories;  there  is  still  an 
Anglo-Norman  poem  of  Waldef  extant,  i.e.  Waltheof,  and 
the  story  of  Hereward  the  W^a^^is  known,  like  that  of  Waltheof 
also,  from  a  Latin  prose  tale.  The  short  tale  of  Athelston  may  be 
mentioned  here,  and  also  the  amazing  long  romance  of  Richard 


320  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

Cceur  de  Lion,  which  is  not  greatly  troubled  with  the  cares 
of  the  historian. 

The  varieties  of  style  in  the  English  romances  are  very 
great,  under  an  apparent  monotony  and  poverty  of  type. 
Between  Sir  Beves  of  Hamtoun  and  Sir  Gawayne  and  the 
Grene  Knight  there  is  as  wide  an  interval  as  between  (let  us 
say)"  Monk"  Lewis  and  Scott,  or  G.  P.  R.  James  and  Thack- 
eray. There  are  many  different  motives  in  the  French  books 
from  which  most  of  the  English  tales  are  borrowed,  and  there 
are  many  different  ways  of  borrowing. 

As  regards  verse,  there  are  the  two  great  orders,  riming  and 
blank  alliterative.  Of  riming  measures  the  most  usual  are  the 
short  couplet  of  octosyllabic  lines  and  the  stanza  called  rime 
couee,  rithmus  caudatus. 

King  Horn  is  singular  in  its  verse,  an  example  of  one  stage 
in  the  development  of  modem  English  metres.  It  is  closely 
related  in  prosody  to  Layamon's  Brut,  and  might  be  described 
as  carrying  through  consistently  the  riming  couplet,  which 
Layamon  interchanges  with  blank  lines.  The  verse  is  not 
governed  by  the  octosyllabic  law;  it  is  not  of  Latin  origin; 
it  has  a  strange  resemblance  to  the  verse  of  Otfried  in  Old 
High  German  and  to  the  accidental  riming  passages  in  Old 
English,  especially  in  the  more  decrepit  Old  English  verse: 

Thanne  him  spac  the  gode  king: 

Wei  bruc  thu  thi  nevening; 

Horn  thu  go  wel  schiille 

Bi  dales  and  bi  hiille; 

Horn  thu  lude  sune 

Bi  dales  and  bi  dune; 

So  schal  thi  name  spring^ 

Fram  kynge  to  kynge, 

And  thi  fairness^ 

Abute  Westernessfe, 

The  strengthe  of  thine  hond^ 

In  to  evrech  londe.^ 

There  is  no  other  romance  in  this  antique  sort  of  verse. 
In  the  ordinary  couplets  just  such  differences  may  be  found  as 
in  modern  usage  of  the  same  measure.  Havelok  and  Orfeo^ 
King  Alisaunder  and  Ywain  have  not  exactly  the  same  effect. 

» Ll.  205  sqq. 


Forms  of  Verse  321 

Havelok,  though  sometimes  a  Httle  rough,  is  not  unsound; 
the  poem  of  Ywain  and  Gawain  is  nearly  as  correct  as  Chaucer ; 
The  Squire  of  Low  Degree  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  and  most 
fluent  examples  of  this  verse  in  English.  There  is  a  pause  at 
the  end  of  every  line,  and  the  effect  is  like  that  of  some  ballads : 

The  squyer  her  hente  in  armes  two, 

And  kyssed  her  an  hundreth  tymes  and  mo. 

There  was  myrth  and  melody, 

With  harpe,  gytron  and  sautry, 

With  rote,  ribible  and  clokarde, 

With  pypes,  organs  and  bombarde, 

With  other  mynstrelles  them  amonge, 

With  sytolphe  and  with  sautry  songe, 

With  fydle,  recorde  and  dowcemere. 

With  trompette  and  with  claryon  clere, 

With  dulcet  pipes  of  many  cordes, 

In  chambre  revelyng  all  the  lordes, 

Unto  morne  that  it  was  daye.^ 

Besides  the  short  couplet  different  types  of  common  metre 
are  used ;  very  vigorously,  with  full  rimes,  in  Sir  Ferumhras — 

Now  bygynt  a  strong  batayl  betwene  this  knyghtes  twayne, 
Ayther  gan  other  hard  assaylebothe  wyth  myght  and  mayne; 
They  hewe  togadre  wyth  swerdes  dent,  faste  with  bothen  hondes. 
Of  helmes  and  sheldes  that  fyr  outwent,  so  spar kes  doth  of  brondes:* 

and  without  the  internal  rime,  in  The  Tale  of  Gamelyn,  the 
verse  of  which  has  been  so  rightly  praised.^ 

Sir  Thopas  might  be  taken  as  the  standard  of  the  rithmus 
caudatus,  but  Sir  Thopas  itself  shows  that  variations  are  ad- 
mitted and  there  are  several  kinds  besides,  which  Chaucer  does 
not  introduce. 

In  later  usage  this  stanza  is  merely  twofold,  as  in  Drayton's 
Nymphidia  or  in  The  Baby's  Debut.  In  early  days  it  was  com- 
monly fourfold,  i.e.  there  are  four  caudae  with,  the  same  rime: 

And  so  it  fell  upon  a  daye 
The  palmare  went  to  the  wode  to  playe, 
His  mirthes  for  to  mene; 

»  LI.  1067  sqq.  2  LI.  602  sqq. 

^  Saintsbury,  English  Prosody,  i,  p.  195. 
VOL.  I. — 21. 


322  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

The  knightes  brake  up  his  chamber  dore 
And  fand  the  gold  right  in  the  flore 

And  bare  it  unto  the  quene ; 
And  als  sone  als  scho  saw  it  with  sighte, 
In  swoning  than  fell  that  swete  wighte 

For  scho  had  are  it  sene ! 
Scho  kissed  it  and  said,  "Alias! 
This  gold  aughte  Sir  Isambras, 

My  lord  was  wont  to  bene."  ^ 

Sometimes  there  are  three  lines  together  before  each 
Cauda,  as  in  Sir  Perceval  and  Sir  Degrevant  and  others: 

Lef,  lythes  to  me 

Two  wordes  or  thre 

Off  one  that  was  fair  and  fre, 

And  felle  in  his  fighte; 
His  righte  name  was  Percyvelle, 
He  was  fosterde  in  the  felle, 
He  dranke  water  of  the  welle, 

And  yitte  was  he  wyghte ! 
His  fadir  was  a  noble  mane 
Fro  the  tyme  that  he  begane; 
Miche  worchippe  he  wane 

When  he  was  made  knyghte; 
In  Kyng  Arthures  haulle, 
Beste  by-luffede  of  alle, 
Percyvelle  they  gane  hym  calle, 

Who  so  redis  ryghte. 

While  as  this  example  shows,  there  are  different  lengths 
of  line,  they  are  not  all  in  eights  and  sixes.  Sir  Libeaus, 
particularly,  makes  very  pretty  play  with  a  kind  of  short  metre 
and  a  peculiar  sequence  of  the  rimes : 

That  maide  knelde  in  halle 
Before  the  knightes  alle 

And  seide:  My  lord  Arthour! 
A  cas  ther  is  befalle, 
Worse  withinne  walle 

Was  never  non  of  dolour! 
My  lady  of  Sinadoune 
Is  brought  in  strong  prisoun 

That  was  of  greet  valour; 

>5ir  Isumbras,  11.  641  sqq. 


Forms  of  Verse  3^3 

Sche  praith  the  sende  her  a  knight 
With  harte  good  and  Hght 
To  winne  her  with  honour,^ 

The  Cauda  is  usually  of  six  syllables;  but  there  is  a  variety 
with  four,  found  in  part  of  Sir  Beves : 

That  erl  is  hors  began  to  stride 
His  scheld  he  hang  upon  is  side 

Gert  with  swerd ; 
Moste  non  armur  on  him  come 
Himself  was  boute  the  ferthe  some 

Toward  that  ferd. 

Alias  that  he  nadde  be  war 
Of  is  fomen  that  weren  thar 

Him  forte  schende; 
With  tresoun  worth  he  ther  islawe 
And  i-brought  of  is  lif-daw 

Er  he  hom  wende.^ 

The  rime  couee  is  a  lyrical  stanza,  and  there  are  other 
lyrical  forms.  One  of  the  romances  of  Octavian  is  in  the  old 
Provencal  and  old  French  measure  which,  by  roundabout 
ways,  came  to  Scotland,  and  was  used  in  the  seventeenth 
century  in  honour  of  Habbie  Simson,  the  piper  of  Kilbarchan, 
and,  thereafter,  by  Allan  Ramsay,  Fergusson  and  Bums,  not 
to  speak  of  later  poets. 

The  knyght  was  glad  to  skape  so, 

As  every  man  is  from  hys  foo; 

The  mayster  lette  ten  men  and  moo 

That  ylke  day, 
To  wende  and  selle  that  chyld  hem  fro 

And  that  palfray.^ 

The  riming  Mart  Arthur  is  in  a  favourite  eight-line  stanza. 
Sir  Tristrem,  in  most  ways  exceptional,  uses  a  lyrical  stave, 
like  one  of  those  in  the  collection  of  Laurence  Minot,  and 
very  unlike  anything  that  was  permissible  in  the  French 
schools  of  narrative  at  that  time.  It  may  be  remembered, 
however,  that  the  Italian  romances  of  the  fourteenth  century 
and  later  used  a  form  of  verse  that,  at  first,  was  lyrical,  the 

>L1.  145  sqq.  2  LI.  199  sqq.  '  LI.  379  sqq. 


324  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

ottava  rima;  there  are  other  affinities  in  ItaHan  and  English 
popular  literature,  as  compared  with  the  French,  common 
qualities  which  it  would  be  interesting  to  study  further.  ^ 

The  French  originals  of  these  English  romances  are  al- 
most universally  in  short  couplets,  the  ordinary  verse  for  all 
subjects,  after  the  chansons  de  geste  had  grown  old-fashioned.^ 
On  the  whole,  and  considering  how  well  understood  the  short 
couplet  was  in  England  even  in  the  thirteenth  century,  e.g. 
in  The  Owl  and  Nightingale,  it  is  rather  surprising  that  there 
should  be  such  a  large  discrepancy  between  the  French  and 
the  English  forms.  There  are  many  anomalies;  thus,  the 
fuller  version  of  Ipomedon,  by  a  man  who  really  dealt  fairly 
and  made  a  brave  effort  to  get  the  French  spirit  into  English 
rime,  is  in  rime  couee;  while  the  shorter  Ipomedon,  scamped 
work  by  some  poor  hack  of  a  minstrel,  is  in  the  regular  French 
couplet.  It  should  be  noted  here  that  rime  couee  is  later  than 
couplets,  though  the  couplets  last  better,  finally  coming  to 
the  front  again  and  winning  easily  in  Confessio  Amantis  and 
in  The  Romaunt  of  the  Rose.  There  are  many  examples  of  re- 
writing: tales  in  couplets  are  rewritten  in  stanzas;  Sir  Beves, 
in  the  earlier  part,  is  one,  Sir  Launfal  is  another.  Horn 
Childe  is  in  the  T  ho  pas  verse ;  it  is  the  same  story  as  King  Horn, 
though  with  other  sources,  and  different  names  and  incidents. 

In  later  times,  the  octosyllabic  verse  recovers  its  place, 
and,  though  new  forms  are  employed  at  the  close  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  such  as  rime  royal  {e.g.  in  Generydes)  and  the 
heroic  couplet  (in  Clariodus  and  Sir  Gilbert  Hay's  Alexander), 
still,  for  simple  popular  use,  the  short  verse  is  the  most  con- 
venient, as  is  proved  by  the  chap-book  romances,  Sir  Eger 
and  Roswall  and  Lilian — also,  one  may  say.  Sir  David  Lynd- 
say's  Squire  Meldrum.  The  curious  riming  alliterative  verse 
of  the  Awntyrs  of  Arthure  and  Rauf  Coilyear  lasts  well  in 
Scotland;  but  it  had  never  been  thoroughly  established  as 
a  narrative  measure,  and,  though  it  is  one  of  the  forms  recog- 
nised   and  exemplified  in  King  James  VI's  Art  of  Poesie,  its 

■  Gaston  Paris,  opp.  citt. 

2  There  are  exceptions ;  thus  the  French — or  Anglo-Norman — Beves  is  in  an 
epic  measure ;  and,  of  course,  some  of  the  English  romances  are  borrowed  from 
French  epics,  like  Roland,  and  Sir  Ferumbras,  and  the  alliterative  poem  of  the 
Swan-Knight  {Chevelere  Assigne)  which,  though  romantic  enough  in  subject, 
belongs  technically,  in  the  original  French,  to  the  cycle  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon. 


Forms  of  Verse 


J-O 


"tumbling  verse"  is  there  regarded  as  most  fit  for  "flytings," 
which  was  indeed  its  usual  function  in  the  end  of  its  days. 

Alliterative  blank  verse  came  up  in  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century  and  was  chiefly  used  for  romance,  Piers  Plow- 
man being  the  only  considerable  long  poem  to  be  compared  in 
weight  with  The  Troy  Book  or  The  Wars  of  Alexander,  though 
there  are  others  of  less  compass  which  are  still  remarkable 
enough.  Where  the  verse  came  from  is  not  known  clearly 
to  anyone  and  can  only  be  guessed.  The  facts  are  that, 
whereas  the  old  verse  begins  to  show  many  signs  of  decay 
before  the  Conquest,  and  reappears  after  the  Conquest  in 
very  battered  shapes,  in  Layamon  and  The  Bestiary  and  The 
Proverbs  of  Alfred,  the  new  order,  of  which  William  of  Palerne 
is  the  earliest,  has  clearly  ascertained  some  of  the  main  princi- 
ples of  the  ancient  Teutonic  line,  and  adheres  to  them  without 
any  excessive  difficulty.  The  verse  of  these  alliterative  ro- 
mances and  of  Langland,  and  of  all  the  rest  down  to  Dunbar 
and  the  author  of  Scotish  Feilde,  is  regular,  with  rules  of  its  own ; 
not  wholly  the  same  as  those  of  old  English  epic,  but  partly 
so,  and  never  at  all  like  the  helpless  medley  of  Layamon.  It 
must  have  been  hidden  away  somewhere  underground — con- 
tinuing in  a  purer  tradition  than  happens  to  have  found  its 
way  into  extant  manuscripts — till,  at  last,  there  is  a  striking 
revival  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  There  are  some  hints 
and  indications  in  the  meantime.  Giraldus  the  untiring, 
the  untamed,  with  his  quick  wit  and  his  lively  interest  in 
all  manner  of  things,  has  a  note  comparing  the  Welsh  and 
the  English  love  of  alliteration — as  he  compares  the  part- 
singing  of  Wales  with  that  of  the  north  country.  He  gives 
English  examples : 

Good  is  togedere  gamen  and  wisdom, 

a  regular  line,  like  those  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  unlike 
the  practice  of  Layamon.  Plainly,  many  things  went  on 
besides  what  is  recorded  in  the  surviving  manuscripts.  At 
any  rate,  the  result  in  the  fourteenth  century  alliterative 
poems  is  a  noble  one. 

The  plots  of  the  romances  are,  like  the  style  of  them,  not 
so  monotonous  as  at  first  appears.  They  are  not  all  incoherent, 
and  incoherence  is  not  found  exclusively  in  the  minstrels' 
tales;  there  are  faults  of  composition  in  some  of  Chaucer's 


326         Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

stories  (e.g.  The  Man  of  Law's  Tale) ,  as  manifest  as  those  which 
he  satirised  in  Sir  Thopas.  A  great  many  of  the  romances  are 
little  better  than  hackneyed  repetitions,  made  by  an  easy 
kaleidoscopic  shuffling  of  a  few  simple  elements.  Perhaps 
Sir  Beves  is  the  best  example  of  the  ordinary  popular  tale, 
the  medieval  book  of  chivalry  with  all  the  right  things  in  it. 
It  might  have  been  produced  in  the  same  way  as  The  Knight 
of  the  Burning  Pestle,  by  allowing  the  audience  to  prescribe 
what  was  required.  The  hero's  father  is  murdered,  like 
Hamlet's;  the  hero  is  disinherited,  like  Horn;  he  is  wooed  by 
a  fair  Paynim  princess;  he  carries  a  treacherous  letter,  like 
Hamlet  again,  "and  beareth  with  him  his  own  death";  he 
is  separated  from  his  wife  and  children,  like  St.  Eustace  or 
Sir  Isumbras;  and  exiled,  like  Huon  of  Bordeaux,  for  causing 
the  death  of  the  king's  son.  The  horse  Arundel  is  like  Bayard 
in  The  Four  Sons  of  Aymon,  and  the  giant  Ascapart  is  won 
over  like  Ferumbras.  ^  In  the  French  original  there  was  one 
conspicuous  defect — no  dragon.  But  the  dragon  is  supplied, 
most  liberally  and  with  great  success,  in  the  English  version. 
It  makes  one  think  of  a  good  puppet-show;  for  example,  the 
play  of  Don  Gayferos,  which  drew  Don  Quixote  into  a  passion. 
"  Stay,  your  worship,  and  consider  that  those  Moors  which 
your  worship  is  routing  and  slaying  are  not  real  Moors,  bat 
pasteboard!"  Saracens  are  cheap  in  the  old  romances;  King 
Horn  rode  out  one  day  and  bagged  a  hundred  to  his  own 
sword.  Yet  there  are  differences;  in  Sir  Ferumbras,  which 
is  no  very  ambitious  poem,  but  a  story  which  has  shared  with 
Sir  Beves  and  Sir  Guy  the  favour  of  simple  audiences  for  many 
generations,  there  is  another  kind  of  fighting,  because  it  comes 
from  the  Old  French  epic  school,  which  gives  full  particulars 
of  every  combat,  on  the  same  scale  as  the  Iliad.  So  far,  the 
work  is  more  solid  than  in  Sir  Bcvcs.  There  are  worse  things, 
however,  than  the  puppet-show  of  chivalry.  The  story  of 
Guy  of  Warwick,  for  instance,  is  something  of  a  trial  for  the 
most  reckless  and  most  "Gothic"  reader;  instead  of  the 
brightly  coloured  figures  of  Sir  Beves  or  King  Horn  and  their 
adversaries,   there  is   a  doleful,   stale  religion  in  it,   a  most 

'  A  resemblance  has  been  traced  between  Sir  Beves  and  some  things  in 
Firdusi.  The  east  had  its  books  of  chivalry  like  the  west,  and  nearly  at  the 
same  time.     Cf.  Deutschbein,  Englische  Sagengeschichte . 


Traditional  Plots  327 

trashy  mixture  of  asceticism  (like  the  legend  of  St.  Alexius), 
with  the  most  hackneyed  adventures.  Not  that  commonplace 
adventures  need  be  dull;  sometimes  even  an  increased  ac- 
quaintance with  parallels  and  variants  and  so  forth  may 
heighten  the  interest;  as  when  Horn  returns  in  disguise  and 
sits  down  in  the  "beggars'  row."  It  is  natural  to  think  of 
the  beggars  at  the  foot  of  the  hall  in  the  Odyssey;  there  is  the 
same  kind  of  scene  in  an  Irish  popular  tale  {Blaiman^),  where 
a  recognition  takes  place  like  that  of  King  Horn.  In  com- 
paring them,  one  seems  to  get,  not,  indeed,  any  clear  theory 
of  the  way  in  which  the  ideas  of  stories  are  carried  about  the 
world,  but  a  pleasant  sense  of  the  community  of  stories,  so  to 
speak,  and  of  the  relation  between  stories  and  real  life,  in 
different  ages  and  places. 

Traditional  plots  like  those  of  the  fairy  tales  appear  in  medi- 
eval romances ;  not  often  enough,  one  is  inclined  to  say,  and  not 
always  with  any  distinct  superiority  of  the  literary  to  the  popular 
oral  version.  One  example  is  Sir  Amadas,  which  is  the  story 
of  the  grateful  ghost,  the  travelling  companion.  The  Old  Wives' 
Tale.  This  story,  one  of  the  best  known  in  all  languages, 
has  a  strange  power  to  keep  its  elements  free  of  contamination. 
It  is  found  in  many  mixed  forms,  it  is  true,  but  some  of  the 
latest  folklore  versions  are  distinct  and  coherent.  There  is 
an  Irish  version  {Beauty  of  the  World,  given  by  Larminie  in 
Gaelic  and  English)  w^hich,  when  compared  with  Sir  Amadas, 
seems  to  prove  that  the  authors  of  the  metrical  romances  might 
possibly  have  done  better  if  they  had  attended  to  the  narrative, 
like  the  simple  tellers  of  fairy-tales,  without  troubling  them- 
selves as  to  the  rhetoric  of  the  French  school.  Another  ex- 
ample of  the  same  sort  can  be  obtained  by  comparing  Sir  Per- 
ceval with  some  of  the  folklore  analogues.  Sir  Perceval  is 
one  of  the  simplest  of  the  old  romances :  it  seems  at  first  almost 
like  a  rude  burlesque  of  the  Conic  del  Graal.  It  is  now  commonly 
thought  to  be  taken  from  an  earlier  lost  French  version  of  the 
same  subject.  However  that  may  be,  it  shows  the  common 
roughness  of  the  English  as  compared  with  the  French  tales; 
it  is  full  of  spirit,  but  it  is  not  gentle.  Percival  in  this  romance 
is  not  like  the  Percival  of  Wolfram  or  of  Malory ;  he  is  a  rollick- 
ing popular  hero  who  blunders  into  great  exploits.     The  style, 

'  Curtin,  Hero  Tales  of  Ireland. 


328         Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

even  for  this  sort  of  motive,  is  rather  too  boisterous.  Again, 
in  this  case,  as  with  Sir  Amadas,  there  may  be  found  a  tradi- 
tional oral  rendering  of  some  of  the  same  matters  which, 
in  point  of  style,  is  better  than  the  English  metrical  romance. 
The  scene  of  the  discourteous  knight  breaking  in  and  insulting 
the  king  is  found  in  the  west  Highland  tale  of  The  Knight 
of  the  Red  Shield,  in  Campbell's  collection,  and  it  is  told  there 
with  greater  command  of  language  and  better  effect. 

"Breton  lays"  have  been  mentioned;  the  name  meant  for 
the  English  a  short  story  in  rime,  like  those  of  Marie  de  France, 
taken  from  Celtic  sources.  Some  of  these  were  more  complex 
than  others,  but  they  were  never  spun  out  like  the  romances 
of  Beves  and  Guy,  and  the  best  of  them  are  very  good  in  the 
way  they  manage  their  plot.  Moreover  there  is  something 
in  them  of  that  romantic  mystery  which  is  less  common  in 
medieval  literature  than  modern  readers  generally  suppose; 
it  is  not  often  to  be  found  in  the  professional  fiction  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  But  the  Breton  lays  are  nearer  than  other  ro- 
mances to  the  popular  beliefs  out  of  which  romantic  marvels 
are  drawn,  and  they  retain  something  of  their  freshness.  The 
best  in  English  are  Sir  Orfeo  and  Sir  Launfal.  The  first  of 
these,  which  is  the  story  of  Orpheus,  is  a  proof  of  what  can 
be  done  by  mere  form;  the  classical  fable  is  completely  taken 
over,  and  turned  into  a  fairy  tale;  hardly  anything  is  left  to 
it  except  what  it  owes  to  the  Breton  form  (of  thought  and  ex- 
pression.) It  is  a  story  like  that  of  young  Tamlane  in  the 
ballad,  a  rescue  from  the  fairy,  for  Pluto  has  become  the  fairy 
king,  and  everything  ends  happily;  Eurydice  is  brought  back 
in  safety.  There  is  nothing  wrong  in  the  description  of  it 
as  a  "  Breton  lay,"  for  it  is  wholly  such  a  tale  as  the  Bretons, 
and  many  other  people,  might  have  told  without  any  suggestion 
from  Greek  or  Latin.  The  English  poem  (no  original  is  extant 
in  French)  is  an  utterly  different  thing  from  the  rambling  tales 
of  chivalry.  It  has  much  of  the  quality  that  is  found  in  some 
of  the  ballads;  and  in  time,  through  some  strange  fortune,  it 
became  itself  a  ballad,  and  was  found  in  Shetland,  not  very 
long  ago,  with  a  Norse  refrain  to  it.  ^ 

The  different  versions  of  Launfal — Landavall  in  couplets 
Launfal  Miles  of  Thomas  Chestre,  in  rime  cou6e,  and  the  de- 

'  Child,  Ballads,  No.  19. 


Fairy  Tales  329 

generate  Sir  Lamhewell  of  the  Percy  MS. — have  been  carefully 
studied  and  made  to  exhibit  some  of  the  ordinary  processes 
of  translation  and  adaptation.  They  come  from  Marie  de 
France — Thomas  Chestre  took  something  from  the  lay  of 
Graelent  besides  the  main  plot  of  Lanval.  The  story  is  one  of 
the  best  known;  the  fairy  bride — 

The  kinge's  daughter  of  Avalon, 
That  is  an  isle  of  the  fairie 
In  ocean  full  fair  to  see — 

and  the  loss  of  her,  through  the  breaking  of  her  command. 
The  Wedding  of  Sir  Gawain,  which,  in  another  form,  is  The 
Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  is  from  the  same  mythical  region,  and 
has  some  of  the  same  merits. 

The  romance  of  Sir  Libeaus,  "the  fair  unknown,"  the 
son  of  Sir  Gawain,  is  of  different  proportions,  less  simple  and 
direct  than  Orfeo  or  Launfal.  But  it  keeps  some  of  the  virtues 
of  the  fairy  tale,  and  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  of  all  the 
company  of  Sir  Thopas.  Adventures  are  too  easily  multiplied 
in  it,  but  it  is  not  a  mere  jumble  of  stock  incidents.  It  is 
very  like  the  story  of  Gareth  in  Malory,  and,  along  with 
Gareth,  may  have  suggested  some  things  to  Spenser,  for 
the  story  of  the  Red  Cross  Knight.  Also,  the  breaking  of 
the  enchantment  in  the  castle  of  Busirane  may  owe  something 
to  Sir  Libeaus :  there  seems  to  have  been  an  old  printed  edition 
of  Libius  Disconius,  though  no  printed  copy  is  extant.  The 
plot  is  a  good  one,  the  expedition  of  a  young  and  untried 
knight  to  rescue  a  lady  from  enchantment ;  it  is  a  pure  romance 
of  knight  errantry,  very  fit  to  be  taken  as  an  example  of 
that  order,  and,  possibly,  the  best  of  all  the  riming  tales  that 
keep  simply  to  the  familiar  adventures  of  books  of  chivalry. 
Sir  Libeaus  takes  a  long  time  to  reach  the  palace  of  the  two 
enchanters — "clerkes  of  nigremauncie  " — who  keep  the  lady 
of  Sinaudon  under  their  spells  in  the  shape  of  a  loathly  worm. 
But  the  excursion  and  digressions  have  some  spirit  in  them, 
and  no  confusion. 

The  elements  of  the  plot  in  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Grene 
Knight  1  are  as  ancient  and  unreasonable  as  are  to  be  found  in 

1  See  also  Chapter  xv,  where  this  romance  is  further  considered  as  part  of 
the  work  of  the  author  of  Pearl. 


330  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

any  mythology.  No  precise  original  has  been  found  in  French ; 
but  the  chief  adventure,  the  beheading  game  proposed  by  the 
Green  Knight  to  the  reluctant  courtiers  of  King  Arthur  occurs 
often  in  other  stories.  It  comes  in  one  of  the  stories  of  Cuchu- 
linn  in  Irish ;  ^  it  comes  more  than  once  in  the  French  romances ; 
e.g.  in  La  Mule  sans  Frein,  one  of  the  best  of  the  shorter  stories, 
a  strange  old-fashioned  chivalrous  pilgrim's  progress ;  and  this, 
too,  sets  out  from  Kfng  Arthur's  court,  and  the  hero  is  Gawain. 
The  beheading  "jeopardy"  is  a  most  successful  piece  of  un- 
reason :  "  You  may  cut  off  my  head,  if  only  I  may  have  a  stroke 
at  you  some  other  day."  Sir  Gawain  cuts  off  the  Green  Knight's 
head;  the  Green  Knight  picks  it  up;  he  summons  Gawain  to 
travel  and  find  him  by  an  appointed  day,  and-^sj^ibmit  his  neck 
to  the  return-stroke.  This  is  good  enough,  one  would  imagine, 
for  a  grotesque  romance;  one  hears  the  reader  quoting  aegri 
somnia  and  reaffirming  his  contempt  for  the  Middle  Ages. 
Yet  ■  this  romance  of  Sir  Gawayne  is  very  different  from  the 
ordinary  books  of  chivalry;  it  is  one  of  the  most  singular 
works  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  it  is  one  of  the  strongest, 
both  in  imagination  and  in  literary  art.  The  author  loses 
nothing  of  the  fantastic  value  of  his  plot;  on  the  contrary,  he 
does  everything  possible  to  heighten  the  effect  of  it,  to  a 
grotesque  sublimity;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  is  concerned, 
as  Shakespeare  often  is,  to  transform  the  folklore  with  which 
he  is  working,  and  make  it  play  into  his  moral  scheme.  He 
is  a  great  moralist  and  he  can  use  allegory;  but,  in  his  treat- 
ment of  this  story,  his  imagination  is  generally  too  strong 
for  abstract  methods.  He  succeeds  (a  very  remarkable  feat) 
in  making  his  readers  accept  strange  adventures  as  part  of  a 
reasonable  man's  life;  not  smoothing  away  or  suppressing 
absurdities,  but  getting  out  of  them  everything  possible  in  the 
way  of  terror  and  wonder;  and  using  mockery  also,  like  that 
of  the  northern  myths  of  Thor  and  the  giants.  Allegory  comes 
in,  but  accidentally,  in  the  description  of  Gawain's  shield 
and  its  device,  the  "pentangle,"  with  its  religious  motive — 
Gawain  as  the  servant  of  Our  Lady;  thus  adding  something 
more  to  the  complexity  of  the  work.  It  is  a  different  thing 
from  the  simple  beauty  of  the  fairy  tales;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  common   futilities  pf  the  minstrels  are  kept  at  a 

I  Cf.  Bricriti's  Feast,  edited  by  G.  He'nderson  for  the  Irish  Texts  Society. 


■i 

I 


Gawain  and  Tristram  33^ 

safe  distance  by  this  author.  His  landscape  is  not  that  of  the 
ordinary  books ;  Sir  Gawain  is  not  sent  wandering  in  the  con- 
ventional romantic  scenery,  but  in  the  highlands  of  Wales 
in  winter,  all  well  known  and  understood  by  the  poet,  with 
thorough  enjoyment  of  the  season,  "the  flaky  shower  and 
whirling  drift."  This  is  not  quite  exceptional,  for,  though 
the  winter  passages  of  the  Scottish  Chaucerians  are  later, 
the  alliterative  poets  generally  were  good  at  stormy  weather; 
but  there  is  none  equal  to  the  poet  of  Sir  Gawayne  in  this  kind 
of  description.  The  three  hunting  scenes — of  the  hart,  the 
boar,  and  the  fox — ser\'e  to  bring  out  his  talent  further,  while 
the  way  they  are  placed  in  contrast  with  the  Christmas  revels 
in  the  castle,  shows,  at  any  rate,  the  writer's  care  for  composi- 
tion; symmetry  of  this  sort  may  not  be  very  difficult,  but  it 
is  not  too  common  at  this  time.  The  temptation  of  Sir  Gawain 
and  the  blandishments  of  the  lady  may  have  been  suggested 
by  the  French  romance  of  Ider ;  but,  as  in  the  case  of  the  other 
ordeal — the  beheading  game — the  English  poet  has  given 
his  own  rendering. 

Sir  Tristrem  is  a  great  contrast  to  Sir  Gawayne,  though  both 
works  are  ambitious  and  carefully  studied.  The  author  of 
Sir  Gawayne  took  some  old  wives'  fables  and  made  them  into 
a  magnificent  piece  of  Gothic  art ;  the  other  writer  had  one  of  the 
noblest  stories  in  the  world  to  deal  with,  and  translated  it 
into  thin  tinkling  rimes. 

Ysonde  of  heighe  priis, 

The  maiden  bright  of  hewe, 
That  wared  fow  and  griis 

And  scarlet  that  was  newe, 
In  warld  was  non  so  wiis 

Of  crafte  that  men  knewe, 
Withouten  Sir  Tramtris 

That  al  games  of  grewe 

On  grounde. 

Hom  longeth  Tramtris  the  trewe. 
For  heled  was  his  wounde. 

The  author  is  so  pleased  with  his  command  of  verse  that  he 
loses  all  proper  sense  of  his  tragic  theme.  Tristram  and  Iseult 
had  to  wait  long  for  their  poet,  in  England. 

The  Tale  of  Gamelyn  may  count  for  something  on  the  native 


332  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

English  side  against  the  many  borrowed  French  romances.  It 
is  a  story  of  the  yotingest  son  cruelly  treated  by  his  tyrannical 
elder  brother,  and  coming  to  his  own  again  with  the  help  of 
the  king  of  outlaws.  Thomas  Lodge  made  a  novel  out  of  it, 
and  kept  a  number  of  incidents — the  defeat  of  the  wrestler 
(the  "champioun"  as  he  is  called),  the  loyalty  of  Adam 
Spencer  and  the  meeting  with  the  outlaws — and  so  these 
found  their  way  to  Shakespeare,  and,  along  with  them,  the 
spirit  of  the  greenwood  and  its  freedom.  The  Tale  of  Gamelyn 
is  As  You  Like  It,  without  Rosalind  or  Celia;  the  motive  is, 
naturally,  much  simpler  than  in  the  novel  or  the  play :  merely 
the  poetical  justice  of  the  young  man's  adventures  and  res- 
toration, with  the  humorous  popular  flouting  of  respectability 
in  the  opposition  of  the  liberal  outlaws  to  the  dishonest  elder 
brother  and  the  stupid  abbots  and  priors. 

"Ow!"  seyde  Gamelyn,  "so  brouke  I  my  bon 
Now  I  have  aspyed  that  freendes  have  I  non; 
Cursed  mot  he  worthe,  bothe  fleisch  and  blood 
That  ever  do  priour  or  abbot  any  good!" 

The  verse  is,  more  or  less,  the  same  as  that  of  Robert  of 
Gloucester,  and  of  the  southern  Legends  of  Saints;  nowhere 
is  it  used  with  more  freedom  and  spirit  than  in  Gamelyn: 

Then  seide  the  maister,  kyng  of  outlawes 

"What  seeke  ye,  yonge  men,  under  woode-schawes ? " 

Gamelyn  answerde  the  king  with  his  croune, 

"  He  moste  needes  walke  in  woode  that  may  not  walke  in  towne: 

Sir,  we  walke  not  heer  non  harm  for  to  do. 

But  if  we  meete  with  a  deer  to  schute  therto. 

As  men  that  ben  hungry  and  mow  no  mete  fynde. 

And  ben  harde  bystad  under  woode-lynde." 

Gamelyn  is  found  only  in  MSS.  of  The  Canterbury  Tales;  Skeat's 
conjecture  is  a  fair  one,  that  it  was  kept  by  Chaucer  among 
his  papers,  to  be  worked  up,  some  day,  into  The  Yeoman's 
Tale. 

Another  romance,  less  closely  attached  to  Chaucer's  work, 
the  Tale  of  Beryn  (called  The  Merchant's  Second  Tale)  is  also, 
like  Gamelyn,  rather  exceptional  in  its  plot.  It  is  a  comic 
story,  and  comes  from  the  east :  how  Beryn  with  his  merchan- 
dise was  driven  by  a  storm  at  sea  to  a  strange  harbour,  a  city 


"Gamelyn"  and  "Beryn"  333 

of  practical  jokers;  and  how  he  was  treated  by  the  burgesses 
there,  and  hard  put  to  it  to  escape  from  their  knavery;  and 
how  he  was  helped  against  the  sharpers  by  a  valiant  cripple, 
Geoffrey,  and  shown  the  way  to  defeat  them  by  tricks  more 
impudent  than  their  own. 

The  verse  of  Beryn  is  of  the  same  sort  as  in  Gamelyn, 
but  more  uneven ;  often  very  brisk,  but  sometimes  falling  into 
the  tune  of  the  early  Elizabethan  doggerel  drama: 

After  these  two  brethren,  Romulus  and  Romus, 

Julius  Cesar  was  Emperour,  that  rightful  was  of  domus. 

But  on  the  other  hand  there  are  good  verses  like  these : 

For  after  misty  cloudes  ther  cometh  a  cler  sonne 
So  after  bale  cometh  bote,  whoso  bide  conne. 

There  are,  obviously,  certain  types  and  classes  among 
the  romances ;  medieval  literature  generally  ran  in  conventional 
moulds,  and  its  clients  accepted  readily  the  well-known  turns 
of  a  story  and  the  favourite  characters.  But,  at  the  same  time, 
in  reading  the  romances  one  has  a  continual  sense  of  change  and 
of  experiment ;  there  is  no  romantic  school  so  definite  and  assur- 
ed as  to  make  any  one  type  into  a  standard ;  not  even  Chaucer 
succeeded  in  doing  what  Chretien  had  done  two  centuries 
earlier  in  France.  The  English  romancers  have  generally  too 
little  ambition,  and  the  ambitious  and  original  writers  are 
too  individual  and  peculiar  to  found  any  proper  school,  or  to 
establish  in  England  a  medieval  pattern  of  narrative  that 
might  be  compared  with  the  modem  novel. 

Sir  Thopas  he  bereth  the  flour, 

and  the  companions  of  Sir  Thopas,  who  are  the  largest  gtoup, 
never  think  of  competing  seriously  with  the  great  French 
authors  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  masters,  as  they  must  be 
reckoned,  of  medieval  romantic  poetry.  The  English,  like 
the  Italians,  were  too  late;  they  missed  the  twelfth  century 
and  its  influences  and  ideals,  or  only  took  them  up  when 
other  and  still  stronger  forces  were  declaring  themselves. 
They  failed  to  give  shape  in  English  to  the  great  medieval 
romantic  themes;  they  failed  in  Sir  Tristrem;  and  the  Middle 
Ages  were  at  an  end  before  Sir  Thomas  Malory  brought  out 
the  noblest  of  all  purely  medieval  English  romances,  translated 


334  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

from  "the  French  book"  that  was  then  nearly  three  centuries 
old. 

The  relation  of  the  romances  to  popular  ballads  is  not 
easy  to  understand.  The  romances  and  their  plots  go  through 
many  transformations;  Horyi  and  Launfal  are  proof  of  this. 
Horn  turns  into  a  ballad,  and  so  do  many  others;  the  ballad 
of  Orfeo  has  been  mentioned.  But  it  will  not  do  to  take  the 
ballads  in  a  lump  as  degenerate  forms  of  earlier  narrative 
poetry,  for  the  ballad  is  essentially  a  lyrical  form,  and  has 
its  own  laws,  independent  of  all  forms  of  narrative  poetry 
in  extant  medieval  English;  and,  again,  a  great  number  of 
ballads  have  plots  which  not  only  do  not  occur  in  any  known 
romances  (which,  of  itself,  would  prove  little  or  nothing) 
but  they  are  plainly  not  fitted  for  narrative  of  any  length 
{e.g.  Lord  Randal,  Sir  Patrick  Spens,  The  Wife  of  Usher's 
Well).  On  the  whole  it  seems  best  to  suppose  that  the  two 
forms  of  lyrical  ballad  and  narrative  romance  were  independ- 
ent, though  not  in  antagonism,  through  all  the  Middle  Ages. 
They  seem  to  have  drawn  their  ideas  from  different  sources 
for  the  most  part.  Though  almost  anything  may  be  made 
the  subject  of  a  ballad,  there  are  certain  kinds  of  plot  that 
seem  to  be  specially  fitted  for  the  ballad  and  much  less  for  the 
long  story;  fairy  adventures,  like  that  of  Tamlane,  heroic 
defences  against  odds,  like  that  of  Parcy  Reed  and,  before 
all,  tragic  stories,  like  Annie  of  Lochryan  or  the  Douglas 
tragedy.  The  romances,  as  a  rule,  end  happily,  but  there 
is  no  such  law  in  ballads.  It  will  be  found,  too,  that  the  ro- 
mances which  have  most  likeness  to  ballads  are  generally 
among  those  of  the  shorter  and  simpler  kind,  like  Orfeo  and 
the  Lai  le  Freine.  The  question  is  made  more  complicated 
by  the  use  of  ballad  measure  for  some  of  the  later  romances,, 
like  The  Knight  of  Curtesy,  a  strange  version  of  The  Chevalier 
de  Coucy.  Of  Robin  Hood  and  Adam  Bell  and  many  more  it  is 
hard  to  say  whether  they  are  to  be  ranked  with  ballads  or  with 
romances.     But  all  this  is  matter  for  another  enquiry. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Metrical   Romances,    1200— 1500 

II 

THE  metrical  romances  which  form  during  three  centuries 
a  distinctive  feature  of  our  literature  must  in  no  sense 
be  regarded  as  an  isolated  phenomenon.  They  begin 
under  the  auspices  of  the  twelfth  century  renascence.  They  sup- 
ply a  want  while  feudalism  lasts.  And  they  begin  to  vanish 
when  feudalism  crumbles  in  the  wars  of  the  Roses.  It  has  been 
already  said  that  legend  and  love  were  the  two  main  themes 
of  the  twelfth  century  literary  revolt  against  earlier  religious 
traditions,  and  it  is  not  without  significance  that  they  were 
precisely  the  themes  of  this  new  creation,  the  romance.  It 
is  true  that  the  crusading  zeal,  and  occasional  Christianising 
tendencies,  which  characterise  some  of  the  romances,  still 
point  to  militant  religious  forces,  but  religion  ceases  to  supply 
the  initial  impulse,  or  to  give  direction.  The  raison  d'etre 
of  the  romances  is  of  a  secular  kind.  It  was  felt  to  be  good 
to  indulge  the  fancy  and  to  hear  of  love,  and  so  legendary 
and  historical  narratives  and  cheerful  love-stories  were,  from 
time  to  time,  related  with  no  other  motive  than  the  telling 
of  a  good  tale.  The  romance,  then,  obviously  forms  part  of, 
or  is,  perhaps,  the  sequel  to,  that  general  emancipatory  move- 
ment in  literature  which  marked  the  twelfth  century. 

But  the  form  and  tone  of  the  English  romance  were  de- 
termined by  more  than  one  consideration.  Political  and 
social  connections  with  France  and  Brittany  rendered  avail- 
able a  store  of  French  material,  and  Welsh  traditions,  through 
the  medium  of  Brittany,  were  found  to  increase  that  store. 
The  movements  of  the  crusaders  brought  the  west  into  closer 
touch  with  the  east.     And,  amidst  all  these  alien  influences, 

335 


336  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

something  of  what  was  native  still  persisted.  Nor  must 
internal  considerations  be  entirely  forgotten.  Neither  social 
nor  intellectual  development  failed  to  leave  its  mark  upon 
this  branch  of  literature.  Women  had  come  to  be  regarded 
as  of  more  importance  than  ever  in  the  community.  The 
literary  tendencies  which  made  for  love-tales  found  their 
counterpart  in  the  striving  towards  higher  ideals  of  conduct 
in  relation  to  woman.  Manners  became  more  refined  and  a 
code  of  chivalry  was  evolved.  Heightened  sensibility  was, 
moreover,  revealed  in  the  increased  appreciation  of  the  beauti- 
ful— the  beauty  of  womanhood,  the  beauty  of  nature,  the 
beauty  of  noble  conduct.  And  the  refinement  of  fancy 
made  fairyland  seem  possible. 

Jean  Bodel's  classification  of  the  romances  has  already 
been  mentioned.  Regarding  them,  however,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  motives  and  influences  they  embody,  it  is 
seen  that  they  fall  into  certain  groups:  Carolingian  or  Old 
French,  Old  English,  classical,  oriental  and  Celtic. 

The  Carolingian  element  is  represented  in  medieval  English 
romance  by  Sir  Otuel,  Roland  and  Vernagu  and  Sir  Ferumbras. 
The  first  is  an  account  of  a  Saracen  attack  upon  France. 
Sir  Otuel  is  the  Saracen  emissary  who  insultingly  defies 
Charlemagne  in  his  own  hall  and  is,  in  consequence,  challenged 
by  Roland.  A  stiff  fight  follows;  but,  in  answer  to  Charle- 
magne's prayers,  a  white  dove  alights  upon  the  shoulders  of 
the  Saracen;  whereupon  he  capitulates  and  undertakes  to 
embrace  the  Christian  faith.  Roland  and  Vernagu  deals  with 
Charlemagne's  exploits  in  Spain.  Its  main  incident  consists 
of  a  combat,  spread  over  two  days,  between  Roland  and 
Vernagu,  the  gigantic  black  champion  of  the  sultan  of  Babylon. 
At  one  point  of  the  protracted  duel  the  giant  is  overcome 
with  sleep ;  and  this  leads  to  an  exhibition  of  knightly  courtesy. 
So  far  from  taking  advantage  of  his  slumbering  rival,  Roland 
seeks  to  make  those  slumbers  easy  by  improvising  a  rough 
pillow  beneath  his  head.  Sir  Ferumbras  relates  the  capture 
of  Rome  by  the  Saracen  hosts  and  its  relief  by  Charlemagne. 
The  usual  combat  takes  place,  this  time  between  Olivier  and 
Ferumbras,  son  of  the  sultan  of  Babylon.  The  Saracen 
is,  as  usual,  overcome  and  accepts  Christianity.     His  sister 


"Havelok"  337     ' 

Floripas,  who  is  in  love  with  the  French  Sir  Guy,  afterwards 
her  husband,  assists  the  Christians,  and  both  brother  and 
sister  are  subsequently  rewarded  with  territory  in  Spain. 

In  these  works  there  is  obviously  embalmed  the  fierce 
heroic  temper  of  the  Carolingian  era.  The  animating  spirit 
is  that  of  the  crusades.  Saracen  champions  are  consistently 
worsted  and  forcibly  persuaded,  after  sanguinary  combat,  of 
the  beauties  of  Christian  doctrine.  The  chivalrous  ideal  is 
still  in  the  making,  and  the  self-restraint  and  courtesy  of 
Christian  heroes  are  shown  to  contrast  favourably  with  the 
brutal  manners  of  Saracen  warriors.  But  chivalry,  as  such, 
is  still  a  battle-field  grace;  its  softening  virtues  have  yet  to 
be  developed  in  other  spheres  of  activity.  The  glory  of  woman- 
hood lies  in  ferocity  and  daring,  in  a  strong  initiative,  if  needs 
be,  in  affairs  of  love.  Floripas  in  Sir  Fernmbras,  for  the  sake 
of  her  love,  deceives  her  father,  overpowers  her  governess 
and  brains  a  jailor;  and  other  Carolingian  heroines  like  Blanche- 
flour  and  Guiboux  are  similarly  formidable. 

The  romances-Jrvittdi  spring  directly  from  English  soil  are/  \y^ 
animated  by  essentially  different  motives  and  reflect  a  different/ 
society  from  that  of  the  French  group.  In  Havelok  and  Horn, 
in  Guy  of  Warwick  and  Beves  of  Hamtoun  there  exists  primarily 
the  viking  atmosphere  of  tenth  century  England,  though 
the  sagas,  in  their  actual  form,  have  acquired,  through  alien 
handling,  a  certain  crusade  colouring.  In  Horn,  for  instance, 
Saracens  are  substituted  for  vikings  in  plain  disregard  of 
historical  verisimilitude;  and  again,  in  Guy  of  Warwick,  the 
English  legend  has  been  invested  with  fresh  motives  and 
relentlessly  expanded  with  adventures  in  Paynim.  After 
removing  such  excrescences,  however,  we  shall  find  something 
of  earlier  English  conditions.  Such  situations  as  they  depict, 
arising  out  of  usurpation  on  the  part  of  faithless  guardians  -^ 
of  royal  children,  spring,  in  a  great  measure,  out  of  pre-Con- 
quest unsettlement.  They  were  situations  not  uncommon 
in  the  day  of  small  kingdoms  and  restless  viking  hordes. 
Havelok  is  a  tale  of  how  a  Danish  prince  and  an  English  princess 
came  to  their  own  again.  The  hero,  son  of  the  Danish  king 
Birkabeyn,  is  handed  over,  by  his  wicked  guardian  Godard, 
to  a  fisherman  Grim,  to  be  drowned.     A  mystic  light,  however, 


338  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

reveals  Havelok's  royal  birth  to  the  simple  Grim,  who  saves 
the  situation  by  crossing  to  England.  They  land  at  Grimsby, 
a  town  that  still  cherishes  the  name  of  Havelok  and  the 
characters  of  the  tale,  in  its  streets  and  its  seal;  and  the  hero, 

vby  a  happy  coincidence,  drifts  as  a  kitchen-boy  into  the  house- 
hold of  Godrich,  guardian  of  Goldburgh.  This  guardian, 
however,  is  no  better  than  Godard,  for  he  has  likewise  de- 
prived the  daughter  of  the  English  Aethelwold  of  her  inheri- 
tance. Havelok  is  a  strong,  handsome  youth,  who  soon  be- 
comes famous  for  feats  of  strength;  whereupon  Godrich,  who 
had  promised  Aethelwold  that  he  would  marry  Goldburgh 
to  the  "best  man"  in  the  country,  maliciously  keeps  his 
promise  by  forcing  her  to  marry  his  "cook's  knave,"  a  popular 
hero  by  reason  of  his  athletic  deeds.  By  degrading  Goldburgh 
into  a  churl's  wife  Godrich  hopes  to  make  his  hold  upon  her 
inheritance  secure.  The  princess  naturally  bewails  her  lot 
when  led  away  by  Havelok,  but  she  becomes  reconciled 
when  mysterious  signs  assure  her,  as  they  had  previously 
assured  Grim,  of  her  husband's  royal  origin.  Meanwhile,  the 
faithful  Ubbe,  who  has  set  matters  right  in  Denmark,  appears  in 
England,  when  all  wrongs  are  righted  and  the  united  futures 

,  of  hero  and  heroine  are  straightway  assured. 

Horn  is  a  viking  story  plainly  adapted  to  r6mantic  ends. 
The  hero  is  the  youthful  son  of  the  king  of  Suddene  (Isle  of 
Man),  who,  after  the  death  of  his  father,  at  the  hands  of  raiding 
Saracens  (vikings),  is  turned  adrift  in  a  rudderless  boat. 
Wind  and  tide  bring  the  boat  with  its  living  freight  to  the' 
land  of  Westemesse  (Wirral.?),  where  the  princess  Rymen- 
hild,  falling  in  love  with  the  stranded  hero,  endeavours,  with 
womanly  art,  to  win  his  love  in  return.  Horn  is  knighted 
through  Rymenhild's  good  offices;  but,  before  he  can  surrender 
himself  to  the  pleasant  bondage  of  love,  he  longs  to  accomplish 
knightly  deeds.  He  therefore  departs  in  quest  of  adventure, 
but  leaves  behind  him  a  traitorous  companion,  Fikenhild,  who 
reveals  to  the  king  the  secret  of  the  lovers.  Horn  is  banished 
and  only  returns  on  learning  that  Rymenhild  is  about  to  wed. 
He  appears  in  pilgrim  garb,  is  forgiven,  and  rescues  the  prin- 
cess from  a  distasteful  suitor.  But,  after  marriage,  the  old 
knightly  instincts  again  assert  themselves;  and  he  crosses  to 
Suddene,  which  he  rids  of  invaders.     The  treacherous  Fiken- 


"Guy  of  Warwick"  339 

hild  had,  however,  in  the  meantime  carried  off  Rymenhild, 
and  Horn,  after  avenging  this  deed,  returns  once  more  to  his 
homeland, 'this  time  not  alone. 

In  the  ponderous  but  popular  Guy  of  Warwick  we  recognise 
a  tedious  expansion  of  a  stirring  English  legend.  Sir  Guy- 
was  regarded  as  a  national  hero,  who,  by  his  victory  over 
Colbrand  the  Dane,  had  rescued  England  from  the  grip  of  the 
invader.  In  the  romance  this  appears — but  in  company  with 
other  episodes  which  destroy  the  simplicity  of  the  earlier 
narrative,  confuse  its  motive  and  change  its  colouring.  When 
he  first  comes  on  the  scene,  Guy  is  madly  in  love  with  Felice 
the  beautiful  daughter  of  the  earl  of  Warwick;  but  his  suit 
is  denied  on  account  of  his  inferiority  of  standing,  for  he  is 
but  the  son  of  the  earl's  steward.  He,  therefore,  ventures 
abroad,  and  returns  in  a  few  years,  laden  with  honours:  but 
only  to  be  repulsed  once  more  by  his  too  scrupulous  mistress, 
who  now  fears  that  wedded  life  may  transform  her  hero  into 
a  slothful  and  turgid  knight.  Once  more  he  goes  abroad ;  and, 
after  brisk  campaigning,  he  is  welcomed  on  his  return  by 
Aethelstan,  at  whose  request  he  rids  Northumbria  of  an  in- 
satiable dragon.  After  this,  Felice  can  hold  out  no  longer. 
The  lovers  are  united;  but  now  Guy  begins  to  entertain 
scruples.  The  rest  of  his  life  is  to  be  spent  in  hardship  and 
penance,  and  he  leaves  again  for  uncouth  lands.  He  returns 
in  due  course  to  find  King  Aethelstan  hard  pressed  by  the 
Danish  Anlaf;  but  Guy's  overthrow  of  Colbrand  saves  the 
kingdom  and  he  sets  out  forthwith  on  his  way  to  Warwick. 
Disguised  as  a  palmer,  he  finds  his  wife  engaged  in  works  of 
charity;  but,  without  reveaHng  his  identity,  he  stoically  re- 
tires to  a  neighbouring  hermitage,  where  the  much-tried  couple 
are  finally  united  before  he  breathes  his  last. 

Beves  of  Hamtoun,  like  Horn,  springs  from  English  soil, 
but  the  transforming  process  traced  in  the  one  is  completed 
in  the  other.  Beves  presents  almost  entirely  crusading  ten- 
dencies, but  few  traces  remain  of  the  earlier  form.  Beves,  who 
has  been  despatched  as  a  slave  to  heathen  parts  by  a  treacher- 
ous mother,  ultimately  arrives  at  the  court  of  the  Saracen 
king  Ermyn.  Here  he  is  the  recipient  of  handsome  favours, 
and  is  offered  the  hand  of  the  princess  Josian,  on  condition 
that  he  forsakes  the  Christian  faith.     This  he  refuses  to  do, 


340        Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

but  the  valour  he  displays  in  staggering  exploits  still  keeps 
him  in  favour,  and  Josian,  for  his  love,  is  prepared  to  re- 
nounce her  native  gods.  The  king  hears  of  this,  and  Beves 
is  committed  to  a  neighbouring  potentate,  by  whom  he  is 
kept  in  a  horrible  dungeon  for  some  seven  years.  After 
a  marvellous  escape  from  his  terrible  surroundings,  Beves 
seeks  out  Josian,  and  both  flee  to  Cologne,  where  they 
are  duly  wedded.  The  hero's  career  continues  to  be  as 
eventful  as  ever;  but  he  is  finally  induced  to  turn  towards 
home,  where  he  succeeds  in  regaining  his  inheritance,  and 
is  recognised  as  a  worthy  knight  by  the  reigning  king 
Edgar. 

In  attempting  to  estimate  the  contribution  made  by  these 
four  works  to  Middle  English  romance,  it  must  be  remembered 
that,  although  they  originate  ultimately  from  the  England 
of  the  vikings,  of  Aethelstan  and  Edgar,  they  have  all  been 
touched  with  later  foreign  influences.  In  them  may  be  per- 
ceived, however,  an  undeveloped  chivalry,  as  well  as  reminis- 
cences of  Old  English  life  and  thought.  The  code  of  chivalry 
is  as  yet  unformulated.  In  Havelok  we  see  the  simple  ideal 
of  righting  the  wrong.  In  Horn  and  Guy  of  Warwick  is  per- 
ceptible a  refinement  of  love  which  makes  for  asceticism; 
but  the  love  details  are  not,  in  general,  elaborated  in  accord- 
ance with  later  chivalrous  ideals.  Rymenhild  and  Josian 
both  woo  and  are  wooed;  but  they  lack  the  violence  of  Caro- 
lingian  heroines.  In  Felice  alone  do  we  find  traces  of  that 
scrupulous  niceness  encouraged  in  the  era  of  the  courts  of  love. 
With  regard  to  the  existence  of  earlier  English  reminiscences, 
in  both  Horn  and  Havelok  can  be  seen  the  joy  in  descriptions 
of  the  sea  characteristic  of  Old  English  verse.  Both  Guy  and 
Beves,  again,  have  their  dragons  to  encounter  after  the  fashion 
of  Beowulf.  The  marvellous,  which,  to  some  extent,  appears  in 
Havelok,  is  of  the  kind  found  in  Germanic  folk-lore;  it  is  dis- 
itinct  in  its  essence  from  the  product  of  Celtic  fancy.  The 
plebeian  elements  in  the  same  work,  which  embody  a  detailed 
description  of  humble  life,  and  which  are  in  striking  contrast 
to  the  monotonous  aristocratic  colouring  of  the  romance 
elsewhere,  witness,  undoubtedly,  to  a  primitive  pre-Conquest 
community.  And,  last,  Guy's  great  fight  with  Colbrand 
breathes  the  motive  of  patriotism — the  motive  of  Byrhtnoth 


Medieval  Romance  34^ 

— rather  than  the  rehgious  zeal  which  fired  crusading  heroes 
in  their  single  combats. 

The  English  medieval  romance  levied  contributions  also 
upon  the  literature  of  antiquity.  Such  levies  were  due  neither 
to  crusading  zeal,  which  loved  to  recall  Charlemagne's  great 
fights  against  Saracen  hosts,  nor  to  the  impulse  which  clung 
tightly  to  native  history  and  homespun  stories.  They  were, 
rather,  the  outcome  of  a  cherished  conceit  based  on  a  piece 
of  ingenious  etymology,  according  to  which  Englishmen, 
as  inhabitants  of  Britain,  held  themselves  to  be  of  Trojan 
descent  in  virtue  of  Brutus.  In  this  way  did  the  literature  of 
antiquity  suggest  itself  as,  to  some  extent,  an  appropriate  field 
for  the  business  of  romancing.  The  Geste  Hystoriale  of  the 
Destruction  of  Troy  and  King  Alisaunder  may  be  taken  as 
typical  of  this  class.  The  former  of  these  consists  of  an 
epitome  of  the  well-known  story  with,  however,  many  modi- 
fications characteristic  of  medieval  genius.  It  sets  forth  the 
antique  world  interpreted  in  terms  of  medievalism;  Greek 
warfare,  Greek  customs  and  Greek  religion  alike  appearing 
in  the  garb  of  the  Middle  Ages.  And,  together  with  these 
changes,  were  tacitly  introduced  fairy  reminiscences  and 
magical  details.  But,  most  interesting  of  all,  in  the  Troy 
narrative,  are  those  elements  of  the  story  of  Troilus  and 
Briseida  taken  over  from  Benoit  de  Ste.  More,  and  subse- 
quently moulded  into  one  of  the  world's  greatest  stories. 

In  King  Alisaunder  we  see  fashioned  the  historical  and 
legendary  hero,*^  his  career  being  supplemented  with  hosts  of 
fanciful  stories  drawn  from  the  east^  His  birth  is  alike  mys- 
terious and  marvellous.  His  youth  and  manhood  are  passed 
in  prodigious  undertakings.  He  tames  the  fiery  Bucephalus. . 
He  captures  Tyre  and  burns  Thebes.  Darius  falls  before 
him.  He  advances  through  Persia  and  onwards  to  the  Ganges, 
conquering,  on  his  way,  the  great  Porrus  of  India.  His 
homeward  journey  is  a  progress  through  wonderland.  All  the 
magic  of  the  east  lies  concentrated  in  his  path;  he  passes  by 
crowned  snakes  and  mysterious  trees,  and  beholds,  in  the 
distance,  cliffs  sparkling  with  diamonds.  He  is  ultimatel}/ 
poisoned  by  a  friend  and  honourably  buried  in  a  tomb  of 
gold. 


342         Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

The  ruling  motive  of  these  classical  romances,  as  compared 
with  others  of  their  kind,  is  clearly  that  of  depicting,  on  a  large 
scale,  the  heroic  element  in  humanity  and  of  pointing  out  the 
glories  of  invincible  knighthood.  They  concern  themselves 
not  with  chivalrous  love,  but  with  chivalrous  valour  and  knight- 
ly accomplishments.  Their  aim  is  to  point  to  the  more 
masculine  elements  of  medieval  chivalry.  The  joy  of  battle 
is  every\vhere  articulate — not  least  so  in  the  picturesque  move- 
ments of  warlike  bodies,  and  in  the  varied  sounds  of  the 
battlefield.  The  method  of  developing  this  motive  is,  for 
the  most  part,  by  bringing  the  west  into  touch  with  the  east. 
The  treasuries  of  Babylonian  and  antique  fable  are  ransacked 
to  glorify  the  theme  of  warlike  magnificence.  The  wider 
mental  horizon  and  the  taste  for  wonders  which  attracted 
contemporaries  in  Mandeville's  Travels  are  here  enlisted  in 
the  work  of  romance. 

Closely  akin  to  the  Alexander  romance  is  Richard  Cceur  de 
Lion,  which  may,  therefore,  be  considered  here,  though  its 
story  is  not  of  either  eastern  or  classical  origin.  The  scheme 
in  both  is  much  the  same.  Richard's  birth  is  mysterious 
as  was  Alexander's.  In  early  manhood  Richard  wrenches 
out  the  lion's  heart;  Alexander  tames  Bucephalus.  Both 
march  to  the  east  to  perform  great  things:  both  are  presented 
as  types  of  valorous  greatness.  In  the  romance  Richard 
appears  as  the  son  of  Henry  II  and  the  beautiful  enchantress 
Cassodorien.  He  is  imprisoned  in  Germany  as  the  result 
of  an  escapade  on  his  way  home  from  the  Holy  Land,  and  it  is 
here  that  he  tears  out  the  heart  of  a  lion  set  loose  in  his  cell. 
The  proclamation  of  a  general  crusade  soon  afterwards  appeals 
to  Richard  and  he  joins  Philip  of  France  on  his  way  to  the 
east.  The  French  king  is  consistently  treacherous  and  jealous, 
while  Richard  is  no  less  hasty  and  passionate,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, ruptures  are  frequent.  After  avenging  an  insult 
received  from  Cyprus,  Richard  hastens  to  Syria,  where  fight 
succeeds  fight  with  great  regularity  and  the  Saracens  under 
Salad  in  are  gradually  discomfited.  At  last  a  truce  of  three 
years  is  arranged,  at  which  point  the  romancer  is  content  to 
conclude.  The  romance  is  one  of  the  most  stirring  of  the 
whole  group.  It  deals  with  the  crusades;  but  its  central 
theme,  like  that  of  the  Alexander  saga,   is  the  glorification 


"  Flores  and  Blancheflour  "  343 

of  the  romance  of  war,  the  exaltation  of  the  fighting  hero.  It 
is,  moreover,  fiercely  patriotic.  Scorn  is  heaped  on  the  brag- 
gadocio of  the  French,  and  the  drawing  of  Philip's  character 
is  far  from  flattering.  On  the  other  hand,  Coeur  de  Lion's 
haughty  arrogance  is  the  glory  of  Englishmen;  on  his  side 
fight  St.  George  and  big  battalions  of  angels.  His  humour 
appears  as  grim  as  his  blows.  He  feasts  on  Saracens  and 
provides  the  same  dish  for  Saracen  ambassadors.  The  ideal 
man  of  action,  as  here  depicted,  is  one  in  whom  the  elements 
are  mixed.  He  is  by  no  means  deficient  in  knightly  instincts 
and  courtesy;  but,  mingled  with  these,  are  coarse-grained 
characteristics.  He  is  rude  and  blunt,  forceful  and  careless 
of  restraint — all  of  which  traits  represent  the  English  contri- 
bution to  the  heroic  picture. 

Oriental  fable  appears  in  English  romance  with  other 
effects  than  were  obtained  in  the  work  of  King  Alisaunder. 
The  more  voluptuous  qualities  of  the  east,  for  instance,  are 
reproduced  in  Flores  and  Blancheflour  and  result  in  a  style 
of  romance  tolerably  distinct.  In  The  Seven  Sages  of  Rome, 
again,  the  story-book  is  employed  in  oriental  fashion.  The 
heroine  of  the  first,  Blancheflour,  is  a  Christian  princess 
carried  off  by  the  Saracens  in  Spain  and  subsequently  educated 
along  with  their  young  prince  Flores.  Childish  friendship 
develops  into  love,  and  Flores  is  promptly  removed — but  not 
before  his  lady  has  given  him  a  magic  ring  which  will  tarnish 
when  the  giver  is  in  danger.  Danger  soon  threatens  her 
in  the  shape  of  false  accusation;  but  this  peril,  being  revealed 
to  Flores  by  means  of  his  ring,  is  duly  averted,  though  subse- 
quent treachery  succeeds  in  despatching  the  princess  to  Egypt 
as  a  slave.  Thither  Flores  pursues  her;  and,  by  dint  of 
bribery  and  strategem,  he  succeeds  in  entering  the  seraglio 
Vv^here  she  is  detained.  The  inevitable  discovery  follows,  but 
the  anger  of  the  emir  having  vanished  on  his  learning  all  the 
circumstances,  the  trials  of  the  lovers  come  to  a  pleasant  end. 
In  this  work  the  central  theme  is,  once  again,  that  of  love; 
but,  in  the  manner  of  treatment,  there  are  visible  certain 
departures.  According  to  western  standards,  the  tone  is, 
in  fact,  somewhat  sentimental.  It  is  felt  that  soul-stirring 
passions  are  not  involved ;  the  whole  seems  wanting  in  the 


344  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

quality  of  hardihood,  Flores,  for  instance,  swoons  in  your 
true  sentimental  fashion.  He  finds  heart's-ease  in  exile  by 
tracing  his  lady's  name  in  flower  designs.  He  wins  his  cause 
by  dint  of  magic  and  persuasion  rather  than  by  the  strength 
of  his  own  right  arm.  An  oriental  colouring  is  also  noticeable 
in  the  sensuous  descriptions  of  garden  and  seraglio,  as  well 
as  in  the  part  played  by  the  magic  ring.  We  have  here 
material  and  motives  which  enlarged  the  domain  of  the  medie- 
val romance,  and  which  appealed  to  Chaucer  when  he  set  about 
writing  his  Squire's  Tale.  In  The  Seven  Sages  of  Rome  other 
aspects  of  the  east  are  duly  represented.  Diocletian's  wicked 
queen,  failing  in  her  attempt  to  ensnare  her  stepson  Florentine, 
viciously  accuses  him  of  her  own  fell  designs.  Whereupon, 
Florentine's  seven  tutors  plead  on  his  behalf  by  relating  seven 
tales  of  the  perfidy  of  woman.  The  queen,  as  plaintiff,  relates 
a  corresponding  number  concerning  the  wickedness  of  counsel- 
lors. The  tales  are  told,  the  queen  is  unmasked  and  duly 
punished.  In  an  age  dedicated  by  the  west  to  the  worship  of 
women  we  have  here  represented  the  unflattering  estimate  of 
womankind  held  by  the  east.  The  framework  and  the  device 
of  a  series  of  tales  is,  likewise,  oriental,  and  so  is  the  didactic 
tendency  which  underlies  the  whole.  The  aim  is  to  set  forth 
the  dangers  to  which  youth  is  subject,  not  only  from  the 
deceit  of  men,  but,  also,  from  the  wiles  of  women. 

Of  far  greater  importance,  however,  than  any  of  the  fore- 
going influences  is  that  derived  from  Celtic  sources.  Stories  of 
Arthur,  of  Tristram  and  Gawain,  while,  in  response  to  forma- 
tive influences  of  the  time,  they  present  certain  details  in 
common  with  the  other  romances,  have  yet  a  distinct  atmos- 
phere, fresh  motives  and  new  colouring.  Points  of  similarity 
exist,  but  with  a  difference.  The  incessant  combats  of  the 
Carolingian  saga  find  a  counterpart  in  the  "  derring-doe " 
of  Arthurian  heroes.  As  in  Horn  and  Havelok,  the  scene  in 
the  Celtic  romances  is  laid  in  Britain;  but  the  background 
is  Celtic  rather  than  EngHsh.  Again,  just  as  King  Alisaunder 
and  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  are  magmficats  of  splendid  heroic 
figures,  so  the  glorification  of  Arthur  is  the  persistent  theme 
of  this  Celtic  work.  And,  last,  the  love-strain  and  the  magic 
which  came  from  the  east,  and  were  embodied  in  Flores  and 


Celtic  Romances  345 

Blancheflour,  correspond,  in  some  measure,  with  Celtic  passion 
and  Celtic  mysticism.  For  such  points  of  contact  the  spirit 
of  the  age  must  he  held  accountable:  for  such  differences  as 
exist,  individual  and  national  genius. 

The  effect  of  the  Celtic  genius  upon  English  romance,  if, 
indeed,  such  a  statement  may  be  ventured  upon,  was  to  reveal 
the  passions,  to  extend  the  fancy  and  to  inculcate  sensibility. 
The  Celtic  element  revealed  love  as  a  passion  in  all  its  fulness, 
a  passion  laden  with  possibilities,  mysterious  and  awful  in 
power  and  effect.  It  opened  up  avenues  to  a  fairy-land  peopled 
with  elvish  forms  and  lit  by  strange  lights.  It  pointed  to 
an  exalted  chivalry  and  lofty  ideals,  to  a  courtesy  which  was 
the  outcome  of  a  refinement  of  sentiment. 

In  the  romance  of  Sir  Tristram  is  embodied  the  Celtic 
revelation  of  love.  The  English  poem  is  based  on  the  version 
of  Thomas,  and  is  distinct  from  that  of  Beroul.  This  story 
of  "death-marked"  affection  is  well  known:  how  Tristram 
and  the  fair  Iseult  are  fatally  united  by  the  magic  love-potion, 
quaffed  in  spite  of  Iseult's  approaching  union  with  Mark  of 
Cornwall;  how"  their  love  persists  in  spite  of  honour  and  duty; 
how  Tristram  marries  Iseult  of  the  White  Hand  and  comes  to 
lie  wounded  in  Brittany ;  how  his  wife,  distracted  with  jealousy, 
falsely  announces  the  ominous  black  sail  coming  over  the  seas ; 
and  how  the  fair  Iseult  glides  through  the  hall  and  expires  on 
the  corpse  of  her  former  lover.  Here  we  feel  that  the  tragedy 
of  love  has  been  remorselessly  enacted.  It  appears  to  us  as 
a  new  and  irresistible  force,  differing  alike  from  the  blandish- 
ments of  the  east  and  the  crudeness  of  the  north.  A  sense  of 
mystery  and  gloom  enfolds  it  all  like  a  misty  veil  over  cairn 
and  cromlech.  The  problem  is  as  enduring  as  life  itself. 
Enchantment  is  suggested  by  means  of  the  love-potion,  yet 
the  weakness  is  mortal,  as,  indeed,  is  the  sombre  climax. 
Passion  descends  to  the  level  of  reality,  and  the  comfortable 
medieval  ending  is  sternly  eschewed.  Love  is  conducted  by 
neither  code  nor  nice  theory:  it  moves,  simple,  sensuous,  pas- 
sionate, to  its  appointed  end,  and  relentlessly  reveals  the  poetry 
of  life. 

In  the  romances  which  deal  with  the  relations  between 
mortal  and  fairy  we  find  elements  of  the  richest  fancy.  Here 
and   elsewhere,  in   this   Celtic   section,   are   discovered  land- 


346  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

scapes  and  scenes  which  charm  the  imagination  with  their 
glamour  and  Hght.  Fays  come  and  go,  wrapped  in  ethereal 
beauty,  and  horrible  spirit-shapes  appear  to  the  accompani- 
ment of  mad  symphonies  of  the  elements.  Knights  of  faerie 
emerge  out  of  weird  forbidden  tracts,  strange  enchantments 
dictating  or  following  their  various  movements.  Mystic 
commands  lightly  broken  entail  tragic  penalties,  and  mortals 
become  the  sport  of  elvish  visitants. 

Of  the  romances  which  relate  to  love-passages  between 
mortal  and  fairy.  Sir  Launfal,  Sir  Orfeo  and  Emar^  may  be 
taken  as  types.  In  Sir  Launfal,  the  hero  receives  love-favours 
from  a  beautiful  fay,  but  breaks  his  bond  by  carelessly  betray- 
ing his  secret  to  the  queen.  He  is  condemned  to  death  and 
abandoned  by  the  fay,  who,  however,  relents  in  time  and, 
riding  to  Arthur's  court,  succeeds  in  carrying  the  knight  off 
to  the  Isle  of  Avalon.  Sir  Orfeo  may  be  briefly  described  as 
a  Celtic  adaptation  of  the  familiar  classical  story  of  Orpheus 
and  Eurydice.  Queen  Heurodys  is  carried  off  into  fairyland, 
in  spite  of  all  that  human  efforts  can  do.  King  Orfeo  follows 
her  in  despair,  as  a  ministrel,  but  his  wonderful  melodies 
at  last  succeed  in  leading  her  back  to  the  haunts  of  men. 
In  Emare  we  have  a  beautifully  told  story  of  the  Constance 
type,  with  the  addition  of  certain  mystical  elements.  The 
heroine  is  a  mysterious  maiden  of  unearthly  beauty  who  is 
cast  off  by  her  unnatural  father  and  drifts  to  the  shores  of 
Wales,  where  she  wins  Sir  Cador's  love.  After  the  marriage, 
Sir  Cador  goes  abroad,  and  the  young  wife  is  once  more  turned 
adrift  by  an  intriguing  mother-in-law.  She  reaches  Rome 
and  there,  in  due  course,  she  is  happily  discovered  by  the  grief- 
stricken  Cador.  Other  romances  relate  the  deeds  of  the 
offspring  of  fairy  and  mortal  union  as,  for  instance,  Sir  Degare 
and  Sir  Gowther.  The  former  is  an  account  of  a  fairy  knight 
and  a  princess  of  Britain.  He  is  abandoned  in  infancy  by 
the  princess,  who,  however,  leaves  with  him  a  pair  of  magic 
gloves  which  will  fit  no  hands  but  hers.  The  child  in  time 
becomes  a  knight,  and  his  prowess  in  the  lists  renders  him 
eligible  for  the  hand  of  the  princess,  his  mother.  By  means 
of  the  gloves,  however,  they  learn  their  real  relationship; 
whereupon  Sir  Degare  relinquishes  his  claim  and  succeeds 
in  the  filial  task  of  reuniting  his  parents.      In  Sir  Gowther, 


Arthurian  Romances  347 

the  hero  is  the  son  of  a  "fiendish"  knight  and  a  gentle  lady 
whom  he  had  betrayed.  The  boy,  as  was  predicted,  proved 
to  be  of  a  most  savage  temperament,  until  the  offending  Adam 
was  whipped  out  of  him  by  means  of  self-inflicted  penance. 
He  then  wins  the  love  of  an  earl's  daughter  by  glorious  achieve- 
ments in  the  lists,  and  piously  builds  an  abbey  to  commemo- 
rate his  conversion. 

It  is  in  the  Arthurian  romances,  and  more  particularly 
in  those  relating  to  Sir  Gawain,  that  we  find  the  loftier  ideals 
of  chivalry  set  forth.  Gawain  is  depicted  as  the  knight  of  hon- 
our and  courtesy,  of  loyalty  and  self-sacrifice.  Softer  manners 
and  greater  magnanimity  are  grafted  upon  the  earlier  knight- 
hood. Self-restraint  becomes  more  and  more  a  knightly 
virtue.  The  combats  are  not  less  fierce,  but  vainglorious 
boasting  gives  way  to  moods  of  humility.  Victory  is  followed 
by  noble  concern  for  the  vanquished.  Passing  over  Sir 
Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight,  which  is  treated  elsewhere, 
we  find  in  Golagros  and  Gawain  these  knightly  elements 
plainly  visible.  The  rudeness  of  Sir  Kay,  here  and  elsewhere, 
is  devised  as  a  foil  to  the  courtesy  of  Gawain.  Arthur  in 
Tuscany  sends  Sir  Kay  to  ask  for  quarters  in  a  neighbouring 
castle.  His  rude,  presumptuous  bearing  meets  with  refusal, 
though,  when  Gawain  arrives,  the  request  is  readily  acceded 
to.  The  domains  of  Golagros  are  next  approached.  He  is 
an  aggressive  knight  of  large  reputation,  whom  Arthur  makes 
it  his  business  forthwith  to  subdue.  A  combat  is  arranged, 
in  which  Gawain  proves  victor;  whereupon  the  noble  Ar- 
thurian not  only  grants  the  life  of  the  defiant  Golagros,  but 
spares  his  feelings  by  returning  to  his  castle  as  if  he  himself 
were  the  vanquished.  Matters  were  afterwards  explained, 
and  Golagros,  conquered  alike  by  arms  and  courtesy,  becomes 
duly  enrolled  in  Arthur's  train.  In  the  Awntyrs  [Adventures] 
of  Arthure  at  the  Terne  Wathelyne  we  find  something  of  the 
same  elements,  together  with  an  exhortation  to  moral  living. 
The  romance  deals  with  two  incidents  alleged  to  have  occurred 
while  Arthur  was  hunting  near  Carlisle.  The  first,  however, 
is  an  adaptation  of  the  "  Trentals  of  St.  Gregory."  A  ghastly 
figure  is  represented  as  emerging  from  the  Tarn,  and  appear- 
ing before  Guinevere  and  Gawain.  It  is  Guinevere's  mother 
in  the  direst  torments.     The  queen  thereupon  makes  a  vow 


348  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

as  to  her  future  life  and  promises,  meanwhile,  to  have  masses 
sung  for  her  mother's  soul.  The  second  incident  is  of  a  more 
conventional  kind,  and  deals  with  the  fight  between  Gawain 
and  Galleroun. 

Ywatn  and  Gawain  is  another  romance  which  embodies 
much  that  is  characteristic  of  Arthurian  chivalry.  Ywain 
sets  out  on  a  certain  quest  from  Arthur's  court.  He  defeats 
a  knight  near  the  fountain  of  Broceliande,  pursues  him  to  his 
castle  and  marries  Laudine,  mistress  of  that  place.  After 
further  adventures  in  love  and  war,  in  most  of  which  he  has 
the  company  of  a  friendly  lion,  he  falls  in  with  Gawain  and, 
ignorant  of  each  other's  identity,  they  engage  in  combat. 
The  fight  is  indecisive,  and  each  courteously  concedes  to 
the  other  the  victory — an  exchange  of  compliments  which 
is  speedily  followed  by  a  joyful  recognition.  The  Wedding 
of  Sir  Gawain,  again,  points  to  loyalty  and  honour,  as  involving 
supreme  self-sacrifice.  It  relates  how  Gawain,  to  save  Arthur's 
life,  undertakes  to  marry  the  loathsome  dame  Ragnell.  His 
noble  unselfishness,  however,  is  not  unrewarded;  the  dame  is 
subsequently  transformed  into  the  most  beauteous  of  her  kind. 
Libeaus  Desconus,  the  story  of  Gyngalyn,  Gawain's  son,  is 
constructed  on  rather  conventional  lines.  The  fair  unknown 
has  several  adventures  with  giants  and  others.  He  visits  a 
fairy  castle,  where  he  meets  with  an  enchantress,  and  rescues 
a  lady  transformed  into  a  dreadful  serpent,  who,  afterwards, 
however,  becomes  his  wife.  The  scene  of  the  Avowing  of 
Arthur  is  once  more  placed  near  Carlisle.  Arthur  is  hunt- 
ing with  Sir  Gawain,  Sir  Kay  and  Sir  Baldwin,  when  all  four 
undertake  separate  vows.  Arthur  is  to  capture  single- 
handed  a  ferocious  boar;  Sir  Kay  to  fight  all  who  oppose  him. 
The  king  is  successful;  but  Sir  Kay  falls  before  a  knight  who 
is  carrying  off  a  beautiful  maiden.  The  victor,  however, 
is  afterwards  overcome  in  a  fight  with  Gawain,  and  then 
ensues  a  significant  contrast  in  the  matter  of  behaviours. 
Sir  Kay  sustains  his  earlier  reputation  by  cruelly  taunting 
the  beaten  knight;  while  Sir  Gawain,  on  the  other  hand, 
mindful  of  the  claims  of  chivalry,  is  studiously  kind  and  con- 
siderate towards  his  fallen  foe.  The  riming  Mort  Arthur, 
and  the  alliterative  work  of  the  same  name,  deal  with  the 
close  of  Arthur's  life.     In  the  first  occurs  the  story  of  the 


Knightly  Character  349 

maid  of  Ascolot,  and  her  fruitless  love  for  the  noble  Lancelot. 
The  narrative  is  instinct  with  the  pathos  of  love,  and  here, 
as  in  Tristram,  the  subtlety  of  the  treatment  reveals  fur- 
ther possibilities  of  the  love  theme.  Lancelot  is,  moreover, 
depicted  as  Guinevere's  champion.  The  queen  is  under  con- 
demnation, but  is  rescued  by  Lancelot,  who  endures,  in  con- 
sequence, a  siege  in  the  Castle  of  Joyous  Garde.  The  end  of 
the  Arthurian  story  begins  to  be  visible  in  the  discord  thus 
introduced  between  Lancelot  and  Gawain,  Arthur  and  Modred. 
The  alliterative  Morte  Arthure  is  more  seriously  historical. 
Arthur  is  represented  as  returning  home  from  his  wars  with 
Lucius  on  hearing  of  Modred's  treachery.  He  fights  the 
traitor,  but  is  mortally  wounded,  and  is  borne  to  Glastonbury, 
where  he  is  given  a  magnificent  burial. 

In  addition  to  the  romances  already  mentioned  as  repre- 
sentative in  some  measure  of  definite  influences  at  work,  there 
yet  remain  certain  others  which  call  for  notice.  We  have,  in 
the  first  place,  a  group  of  some  five  romances  which  may  be 
considered  together  as  studies  of  knightly  character.  They 
are  works  which  may  be  said  to  deal,  incidentally  perhaps, 
with  the  building  up  of  the  perfect  knight  and  Christian  hero, 
though  anything  like  psychological  treatment  is,  of  course, 
entirely  absent.  In  Ipomedon,  we  see  the  knight  as  a  gallant 
if  capricious  lover.  Marriage  having  been  proposed  between 
young  Ipomedon,  prince  of  Apulia,  and  the  beautiful  queen  of 
Calabria,  the  former  determines  to  woo  for  himself.  He  arrives 
incognito  at  the  court  of  the  queen,  wins  her  favour  by  manly 
exploits,  and  then  departs  somewhat  capriciously.  He  is, 
however,  induced  to  return  on  hearing  that  a  tournament  is 
to  be  held  of  which  the  queen  herself  is  to  be  the  prize.  But, 
again,  his  conduct  is  strange.  He  loudly  proclaims  his  dislike 
for  boisterous  tournaments,  and  ostentatiously  sets  out  on 
hunting  expeditions  on  the  days  of  the  contests.  But  he 
actually  goes  to  a  neighbouring  hermitage,  whence  he  issues 
to  the  tournament,  clad,  on  successive  days  in  red,  white  and, 
black  armour,  a  favourite  medieval  method  of  disguise  adopted 
by  Sir  Gowther  and  others.  He  carries  all  before  him  and  then 
vanishes  as  mysteriously  as  ever,  without  claiming  his  prize 
nor   revealing   his  identity.     Soon  afterwards,   the  queen  is 


350  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

hard  pressed  by  a  neighbouring  duke,  and  the  hero  appears 
once  more  to  fight  her  battles,  this  time  disguised  as  a  fool. 
It  is  only  after  further  adventures,  when  he  feels  he  has  fooled 
to  the  top  of  his  bent,  that  he  declares  his  love  with  a  happy 
result.  In  this  stirring  romance  we  see  the  knight-errant  in 
quest  of  love.  The  assumed  slothfulness  and  fondness  for 
disguise  were  frequent  attributes  of  the  medieval  hero:  the 
one  added  interest  to  actual  exploits,  the  other  was  an  assur- 
ance that  the  love  of  the  well-born  was  accepted  on  his  own 
individual  merits. 

In  the  beautiful  romance  of  Amis  and  Amiloun  we  have 
friendship  set  forth  as  a  knightly  virtue.  It  is  depicted  as  an 
all-absorbing  quality  which  involves,  if  necessary,  the  sacrifice 
of  both  family  and  conscience.  Amis  and  Amiloun  are  two 
noble  foster-brothers,  the  medieval  counterparts  of  Orestes 
and  Pylades,  much  alike  in  appearance,  whose  lives  are  in- 
dissolubly  linked  together.  Amiloun  generously,  but  sur- 
reptitiously, takes  the  place  of  Amis  in  a  trial  by  combat,  for 
which  piece  of  unselfishness,  with  the  deception  involved 
in  it,  he  is,  subsequently,  visited  with  the  scourge  of  leprosy. 
Some  time  afterwards,  Amis  finds  his  friend  in  pitiable  plight, 
but  fails,  at  first,  to  grasp  his  identity.  It  is  only  after  a 
dramatic  scene  that  the  discovery  is  made,  and  then  Amis, 
grief-stricken,  proceeds  to  remove  his  friend's  leprosy  by  the 
sacrifice  of  his  own  children.  But  such  a  sacrifice  is  not  per- 
mitted to  be  irrevocable.  When  Amis  and  his  wife  Belisante 
go  to  view  their  slaughtered  children,  they  are  found  to  be 
merely  sleeping.  The  sacrifice  had  been  one  upon  which  the 
gods  themselves  threw  incense.  The  romance,  as  it  stands, 
is  one  of  the  most  pathetic  and  elevating  of  the  whole  series. 

Knightly  love  and  valour  were  eloquent  themes  of  the 
medieval  romance :  in  Amis  and  Amiloun,  the  beauty  of  friend- 
ship is  no  less  nobly  treated.  In  Sir  Cleges,  the  knightly 
character  is  further  developed  by  the  inculcation  of  charity, 
wit  and  shrewdness.  The  story  is  simply,  but  picturesquely, 
told.  The  hero  is  a  knight  who  is  reduced  to  poverty  by  reck- 
less charity.  When  his  fortunes  are  at  their  lowest  ebb  he 
finds  a  cherry-tree  in  his  garden  laden  with  fruit,  though 
snow  is  on  the  ground  and  the  season  is  yuletide.  With  this 
goodly  find  he  sets  out  to  king  Uther  at  Cardiff,  in  the  hope 


**The  Squire  of  Low  Degree"  35 ^ 

of  restoring  his  fallen  fortunes;  but  court  ofiicials  bar  his  way 
until  he  has  promised  to  divide  amongst  them  all  his  reward. 
The  king  is  gratified,  and  Cleges  is  asked  to  name  his  reward. 
He  asks  for  twelve  strokes,  which  the  officials,  in  accordance 
with  the  bargain,  duly  receive,  to  the  unbounded  delight 
of  an  appreciative  court.  The  identity  of  the  knight  then  be- 
comes known  and  his  former  charity  is  suitably  recognised. 

The  theme  of  Sir  Isumhras  is  that  of  Christian  humility,  the 
story  itself  being  an  adaptation  of  the  legend  of  St.  Eustace. 
Sir  Isumbras  is  a  knight  who,  through  pride,  falls  from  his 
high  estate  by  the  will  of  Providence.  He  is  severely  stricken ; 
his  possessions,  his  children  and,  lastly,  his  wife,  are  taken 
away;  and  he  himself  becomes  a  wanderer.  After  much 
privation  nobly  endured,  he  has  learnt  his  lesson  and  arrives 
at  the  court  of  a  queen,  who  proves  to  be  his  long-lost  wife. 
His  children  are  then  miraculously  restored  and  he  resumes 
once  more  his  exalted  rank. 

The  Squire  of  Low  Degree  is  a  pleasant  romance  which 
does  not  belie  an  attractive  title.  Its  theme  suggests  the 
idea  of  the  existence  of  knightly  character  in  those  of  low  es- 
tate, a  sentiment  which  had  appealed  to  a  conquered  English 
people  in  the  earlier  Havelok.  The  humble  squire  in  the  story 
wins  the  affection  of  "the  king's  daughter  of  Hungary," 
as  well  as  her  promise  to  wed  when  he  shall  have  become  a 
distinguished  knight.  An  interfering  and  treacherous  steward 
is  righteously  slain  by  the  squire,  who  then  suffers  imprison- 
ment, and  the  king's  daughter,  who  supposes  her  lover  dead, 
is  thereby  reduced  to  the  direst  straits.  She  refuses  consola- 
tion, though  the  king  categorically  reminds  her  of  much  that 
is  pleasant  in  life  and  draws  up,  in  fact,  an  interesting  list 
of  medieval  delights,  its  feasts,  its  finery,  its  sports  and  its 
music.  Persuasion  faihng,  the  king  is  obliged  to  relent.  The 
squire  is  released  and  ventures  abroad  on  knightly  quest.  He 
returns,  in  due  course,  to  claim  his  own,  and  a  pleasant  romance 
ends  on  a  pleasant  note.  The  story  loses  nothing  from  the  man- 
ner of  its  telling;  it  is,  above  all,  "mercifully  brief."  Its 
English  origin  and  sentiment,  no  less  than  its  pictures  of 
medieval  life,  continue  to  make  this  romance  one  of  the  most 
readable  of  its  kind. 

Besides  these  romances  which  deal,  in  some  sort,  with  the 


352  Metrical  Romances  1200-1500 

knightly  character,  there  are  others  which  embody  variations 
of  the  Constance  theme,  namely.  Sir  Triamour,  Sir  Eglamour 
of  Artois  and  Torrent  of  Portugal.  Like  Emare,  they  belong 
to  the  "reunion  of  kindred"  type — a  type  which  appealed 
to  Chaucer  and,  still  more,  to  Shakespeare  in  his  latest  period. 
One  well-known  romance  still  calls  for  notice.  This  is  William 
of  Palerne,  a  tale  of  love  and  action  which  embodies  the 
primitive  belief  in  lycanthropy,  according  to  which  certain 
people  were  able  to  assume,  at  will,  the  character  and  appear- 
ance of  wolves.  The  tradition  was  widespread  in  Europe,  and 
it  still  appears  from  time  to  time  in  modern  works  dealing  with 
ghouls  and  vampires.  The  story  relates  how  William,  prince 
of  Apulia,  is  saved  from  a  murderous  attack  by  the  aid  of 
a  werwolf,  who,  in  reality,  is  heir  to  the  Spanish  throne.  The 
werwolf  swims  with  the  prince  across  the  straits  of  Messina, 
and  again  renders  aid  when  his  protege  is  fleeing  from  Rome 
with  his  love,  Melchior.  William,  subsequently,  recovers  his 
royal  rights,  and  then  helps  to  bring  about  the  restoration  to 
the  friendly  werwolf  of  his  human  form. 

It  is  striking  and,  to  some  extent,  characteristic  of  the  age, 
that,  although  the  field  of  English  romance  was  thus  wide  and 
varied,  the  personality  of  scarcely  a  single  toiler  in  that  field 
has  come  down  to  posterity.  The  anonymity  of  the  work  em- 
bodied in  our  ancient  cathedrals  is  a  parallel  to  this,  and 
neither  fact  is  without  its  significance.  With  the  Tristram 
legend  is  connected  the  name  of  Thomas,  a  poet  of  the  twelfth 
century,  who  is  mentioned  by  Gottfried  of  Strassburg  in  the 
early  thirteenth  century.  The  somewhat  misty  but  historical 
Thomas  of  Erceldoune  has  been  credited  with  the  composition 
of  a  Sir  Tristram  story,  but  this  was  possibly  due  to  a  confusion 
of  the  twelfth  century  Thomas  with  his  interesting  namesake 
of  the  succeeding  century.  The  confusion  would  be  one  to 
which  the  popular  mind  was  peculiarly  susceptible.  Thomas 
the  Rhymer  was  a  romantic  figure  credited  with  prophetical 
gifts,  and  a  popular  tale  would  readily  be  linked  with  his 
name,  especially  as  such  a  process  was  consistent  with  the 
earlier  Thomas  tradition  as  it  then  existed. 

In  the  case  of  three  other  romances  there  seem  to  be  certain 
grounds  for  attributing  them  to  a  single  writer.  All  three 
works,    King    Alisaunder,    Arthur   and    Merlin    and    Richard 


The  Age  of  Romance  353 

Ccsur  de  Lion,  are,  apparently,  of  much  the  same  date,  and 
alike  hail  from  Kent.  Each  is  animated  by  the  same  purpose 
— that  of  throwing  on  to  a  large  canvas  a  great  heroic  figure; 
there  is  also  to  be  found  in  each  of  them  a  certain  sympathy 
with  magic.  The  handling  of  the  theme  in  each  case  proceeds 
on  similar  lines;  the  close  parallel  in  the  schemes  of  King 
Alisaunder  and  Richard  Coour  de  Lion  has  already  been  noticed  ; 
and  the  narrative,  in  each,  moves  along  in  easy  animated 
style.  Moreover,  similarities  of  technique  are  found  in  all. 
The  recurrence  of  similes  and  comparisons,  as  well  as  riming 
peculiarities  in  common,  suggests  the  working  of  a  single 
mind.  In  King  Alisaunder  and  Arthur  and  Merlin  appears 
the  device  of  beginning  the  various  sections  of  the  narrative 
with  lyric,  gnomic,  or  descriptive  lines,  presumably  to  arouse 
interest  and  claim  attention.  In  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  some- 
thing of  the  same  tendency  is  also  visible,  as  when  a  delight- 
ful description  of  spring  is  inserted  after  the  gruesome  account 
of  the  massacre  of  a  horde  of  Saracens.  All  three  works  betray 
a  joy  in  fighting,  a  joy  expressed  in  vigorous  terms.  In  all  is 
evinced  an  ability  to  seize  on  the  picturesque  side  of  things, 
whether  of  battle  or  feasting;  Saracens  fall  "as  grass  before 
the  scythe";  the  helmets  of  the  troops  shine  "like  snow  upon 
the  mountains."  But  if  the  identity  of  a  common  author 
may  thus  seem  probable,  little  or  nothing  is  forthcoming  as 
regards  his  personality.  Certain  coarse  details,  together  with 
rude  humour,  seem  to  suggest  a  plebeian  pen,  and  this  is, 
apparently,  supported  by  occasional  references  to  trades.  But 
nothing  certain  on  the  subject  can  be  stated.  The  personality 
of  the  poet  is,  at  best,  but  shadowy,  though,  undoubtedly, 
his  work  is  of  outstanding  merit. 

In  certain  respects  these  romances  may  be  said  to  reflect 
the  age  in  which  they  were  written.  They  bear  witness  in  two 
ways  to  the  communistic  conception  of  society  which  then 
prevailed:  first,  by  the  anonymous  character  of  the  writings 
generally  and,  secondly,  by  the  absence  of  the  patriotic  note. 
The  individual,  from  the  communistic  standpoint,  was  but 
a  unit  of  the  nation,  the  nation  merely  a  section  of  a  larger 
Christendom.  The  sense  of  individualism,  and  all  that  is 
implied,  w^as  yet  to  be  emphasised  by  a  later  renascence. 
It  is,  therefore,  clear  that  the  anonymity  of  the  romances,  as  in 

VOL.  I. — 23 


354  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

the  case  of  the  Legendaries  and  Chronicle,  was,  in  part,  the  out- 
come of  such  conceptions  and  notions.     The  works  represent 

The  constant  service  of  the  antique  world 
When  service  sweat  for  duty,  not  for  meed. 

And  the  absence  of  patriotism  from  the  romances  results 
from  the  same  conditions:  national  consciousness  was  not  yet 
really  awakened.  The  mental  horizon  was  bounded  not  by 
English  shores,  but  by  the  limits  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
Coeur  de  Lion's  career  alone  appealed  to  latent  sympathies; 
for  the  rest,  the  romance  is  untouched  by  national  feel- 
ing. French  and  other  material  was  adapted  without  any 
re-colouring. 

The  romance  also  reflects  the  medieval  love  of  external 
beauty.  The  picturesqueness  of  the  actual,  of  medieval  streets 
and  buildings,  the  bright  colours  in  dress,  the  love  of  pageantry 
and  pictorial  effects,  all  helped  to  inspire,  and  are,  indeed,  re- 
flected in,  the  gay  colouring  of  the  romances.  If  the  stories, 
again,  make  considerable  demands  upon  the  credulity,  it  was 
not  remarkable  in  regard  to  the  character  of  the  times.  All 
things  were  possible  in  an  age  of  faith:  the  wisdom  of  credo 
quia  impossible  was  to  be  questioned  in  the  succeeding  age 
of  reason.  Moreover,  the  atmosphere  which  nourished  the 
romantic  growth  was  that  of  feudalism,  and  an  aristocratic 
note  everywhere  marks  its  tone  and  structure.  But  it  is  a 
glorified  feudalism  which  is  thus  represented,  a  feudalism 
glorious  in  its  hunting,  its  feasting  and  its  fighting,  in  its 
brave  men  and  fair  women;  the  lower  elements  are  scarcely 
ever  remembered,  and  no  pretence  is  made  at  holding  up  the 
mirror  to  the  whole  of  society. 

Lastly,  like  so  much  of  the  rest  of  medieval  work,  the  ro- 
mance moves  largely  amidst  abstractions.  It  avoids  close 
touch  with  the  concrete:  for  instance,  no  reflection  is  found  of 
the  struggles  of  the  Commons  for  parliamentary  power,  or  even 
of  the  national  strivings  against  papal  dominion.  The  prob- 
lems of  actual  life  are  carefully  avoided;  the  material  treated 
consists,  rather,  of  the  fanciful  problems  of  the  courts  of  love 
and  situations  arising  out  of  the  new-born  chivalry. 

The  romance  has  many  defects,  in  spite  of  all  its  attractions 
and  the  immense  interest  it  arouses  both  intrinsically  and 


General  Defects  355 

historically.     It   sins   in    being   intolerably   long-winded    and 
in  being  often  devoid  of  all  proportion.     A  story  may  drag 
wearily  on  long  after  the  last  chapter  has  really  been  written, 
and  insignificant  episodes  are  treated  with  as  much  concern 
as  those  of  pith  and  moment.     It  further  makes    demands 
upon  the  "painful"  reader,  not  only  by  its  discursiveness  and 
love  of  digression,  but  also  by  the  minuteness  of  its  descriptions, 
relentlessly  complete,  which  leave  nothing  to  the  imagination. 
"  The  art  of  the  pen  is  to  rouse  the  inward  vision  .   .   .  because 
our  flying  minds  cannot  contain  a  protracted  description." 
This  truth  was  far  from  being  appreciated  in  the  age  of  the 
schoolmen,   with  their  encyclopaedic  training.      The  aristo- 
cratic tone  of  the  romance,  moreover,  tends  to  become  weari- 
some by  its  very  monotony.     Sated  with  the  sight  of  knights 
and  ladies,  giants  and  Saracens,  one  longs  to  meet  an  honest 
specimen  of  the  citizen  class;  but  such  relief  is  never  granted. 
To  these  and  other  shortcomings,  however,  the  medieval  eye 
was  not  always  blind,  though  romances  continued  to  be  called 
for  right  up  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  and,  indeed, 
after.     Chaucer,   with   his   keen   insight   and   strong   human 
sympathies,  had  shown  himself  aware  of  all  these  absurdities, 
for,  in  his  Sir  Thopas,  designed  as  a  parody  on  the  romance 
in  general,  these  are  the  points  on  which  he  seizes.     When  he 
rambles  on  for  a  hundred  lines  in  Sir  Thopas  without  saying 
much,  he  is  quietly  making  the  first  point  of  his  indictment. 
He  is  exaggerating  the  discursiveness  and  minuteness  he  has 
found  so  irksome.     And,  in  the  second  place,  he  ridicules  the 
aristocratic  monotone  by  introducing  a  bourgeois  note  into 
his  parodied  romance.     The  knight  swears  an  oath  on  plain 
"  ale  and  bread" :  while,  in  the  romantic  forest  through  which 
he  is  wandering,  lurk  the  harmless  "buck  and  hare,"  as  well 
as  the  homely  nutmeg  that  flavours  the  ale.     The  lapse  from 
romance  is  sufficiently  evident  and  the  work  silently  embodies 
much  sound  criticism.     The  host,  with  blunt  remark,  ends  the 
parody,  and  in  him  may  be  seen  a  matter-of-fact  intelligence 
declaiming  against  the  faults  of  romance. 

But,  with  all  its  shortcomings,  the  romance  has  a  peculiar 
interest  from  the  modem  standpoint  in  that  it  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  English  fiction.  In  it  is  written  the  first  chapter  of  the 
modem  novel.     After  assuming  a  pastoral  form  in  the  days 


356  Metrical  Romances,  1200-1500 

of  Elizabeth,  and  after  being  reclaimed,  with  all  its  earlier 
defects,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  romance  slowly  vanished 
in  the  dry  light  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  not  before  it 
had  flooded  the  stage  with  astounding  heroic  plays.  The 
later  novels,  however,  continued  the  functions  of  the  earlier 
romances  when  they  embodied  tales  of  adventures  or  tales 
of  love  whether  thwarted  or  triumphant.  Nor  is  Richardson's 
novel  of  analysis  without  its  counterpart  in  this  earlier  cre- 
ation. He  treated  love  on  psychological  lines.  But  charm- 
ing love-problems  had  exercised  the  minds  of  medieval  courtiers 
and  had  subsequently  been  analysed  in  the  romances  after 
the  approved  fashion  of  the  courts  of  love.  It  is  only  in  the 
case  of  the  later  realistic  novel  that  the  origins  have  to  be 
sought  elsewhere — ^in  the  contemporary  fabliaux,  which  dealt, 
in  a  ready  manner,  with  the  troubles  and  the  humours  of  a 
lower  stratum  of  life. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Pearly  Cleanness,  Patience  and  Sir 
Gawayne 

AMONG  the  Cottonian  manuscripts  in  the  British  Museum, 
a  small  quarto  volume,  numbered  Nero  A.  x,  contains 
the  four  Middle  English  poems  known  as  Pearl,  Clean- 
ness, Patience  and  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight.  The 
manuscript  is  in  a  hand  which  seems  to  belong  to  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  or  the  early  years  of  the  fifteenth  century; 
there  are  neither  H;itles  nor  rubrics,  but  the  chief  divisions  are 
marked  by  large  initial  letters  of  blue,  flourished  with  red; 
several  pictures,  coarsely  executed,  illustrate  the  poems,  each 
occupying  a  full  page;  the  writing  is  "small,  sharp  and  irregu- 
lar." No  single  line  of  these  poems  has  been  discovered  in 
any  other  manuscript. 

The  first  of  the  four  poems.  Pearl,  tells  of  a  father's  grief 
for  a  lost  child,  an  infant  daughter  who  had  lived  not  two 
years  on  earth.  In  a  vision  he  beholds  his  Pearl,  no  longer 
a  little  child,  transfigured  as  a  queen  of  heaven;  from  the 
other  bank  of  a  stream  which  divides  them  she  instructs  him, 
teaches  him  the  lessons  of  faith  and  resignation  and  leads  him 
to  a  glimpse  of  the  new  Jerusalem.  He  sees  his  "  little  queen" 
in  the  long  procession  of  maidens;  in  his  effort  to  plunge  into 
the  stream  and  reach  her  he  awakes,  to  find  himself  stretched 
on  the  child's  grave — 

Then  woke  I  in  that  garden  fair; 

My  head  upon  that  mound  was  laid, 

there  where  my  Pearl  had  strayed  below. 

I  roused  me,  and  felt  in  great  dismay, 

and,  sighing  to  myself,  I  said: — 

"  Now  all  be  to  that  Prince's  pleasure."  ' 

1  The  renderings  into  modem  English,  throughout  the  chapter,  are  from 
the  writer's  edition  of  Pearl,  1891. 

357 


358    *Tearl,"  "Cleanness/'  "Patience/'  etc. 

Naturally  arising  from  the  author's  treatment  of  his  sub- 
ject, many  a  ^theological  problem,  notably  the  interpretation 
of  the  parable  of  the  vineyard,  is  expounded.  The  student 
of  medieval  theology  may  find  much  of  interest  in  Pearl,  but 
the  attempt  to  read  the  poem  as  a  theological  pamphlet,  and 
a  mere  symbolical  allegory,  ignores  its  transcendent  reality 
as  a  poet's  lament.  The  personal  side  of  the  poem  is  clearly 
marked,  though  the  author  nowhere  directly  refers  to  his 
fatherhood.  The  basis  of  Pearl  is  to  be  found  in  that  verse  of 
the  Gospel  which  tells  of  the  man  "that  sought  the  precious 
margarites;  and,  when  he  had  found  one  to  his  liking,  he  sold 
all  his  goods  to  buy  that  jewel."  The  pearl  was  doomed, 
by  the  law  of  nature,  to  flower  and  fade  like  a  rose ;  thereafter 
it  became  a  "pearl  of  price";  "the  jeweller"  indicates  clearly 
enough  the  reality  of  his  loss. 

A  fourteenth  century  poet,  casting  about  for  the  form  best 
suited  for  such  a  poem,  had  two  courses  before  him:  on  the 
one  hand,  there  was  the  great  storehouse  of  dream-pictures. 
The  Romaunt  of  the  Rose;  on  the  other  hand,  the  symbolic 
pages  of  Scripture.  A  poet  of  the  Chaucerian  school  would 
have  chosen  the  former;  to  him  the  lost  Marguerite  would 
have  suggested  an  allegory  of  "the  flour  that  bereth  our 
alder  pris  in  figuringe,"  and  the  Marguerite  would  have  been 
transfigured  as  the  type  of  truest  womanhood,  a  maiden  in 
the  train  of  love's  queen,  Alcestis.  ^^  But  the  cult  of  the  daisy 
seems  to  have  been  altogether  unknown  to  our  poet,  or,  at 
least,  to  have  had  no  attraction  for  him.  His  Marguerite  was, 
"l^or  him,  the  pearl  of  the  Gospel;  Mary,  the  queen  of  heaven, 
inot  Alcestis,  queen  of  love,  reigns  in  the  visionary  para- 
'  disc  which  the  poet  pictures  forth.  While  the  main  part  of 
the  poem  is  a  paraphrase  of  the  closing  chapters  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse and  the  parable  of  the  vineyard,  the  poet's  debt  to  The 
Romaunt  is  noteworthy,  more  particularly  in  the  description 
of  the  wonderful  land  through  which  the  dreamer  wanders; 
and  it  can  be  traced  here  and  there  throughout  the  poem, 
in  the  personification  of  Pearl  as  Reason,  in  the  form  of  the 
colloquy,  in  the  details  of  dress  and  ornament,  in  many  a 
characteristic  word,  phrase  and  reference;  "the  river  from 
the  throne,"  in  the  Apocalypse,  here  meets  "the  waters  of  the 
wells"  devised  by  Sir  Mirth  for  the  garden  of  the  Rose.     From 


Episodes  of  "  Pearl"  359 

these  two  sources,  The  Book  of  Revelation,  with  its  almost 
romantic  glamour,  and  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  with  its  almost 
oriental  allegory,  are  derived  much  of  the  wealth  and  brilliancy 
of  the  poem.  The  poet's  fancy  revels  in  the  richness  of  the 
heavenly  and  the  earthly  paradise;  but  his  fancy  is  sub- 
ordinated to  his  earnestness  and  intensity. 

The  chief  episodes  of  the  poem  are  best  indicated  by  the 
four  illustrations  in  the  manuscript. 

In  the  first,  the  author  is  represented  slumbering  in  a 
meadow,  by  the  side  of  a  beflowered  mound,  clad  in  a  long  red 
gown,  with  falling  sleeves,  turned  up  with  white,  and  a  blue 
hood  attached  round  the  neck.  Madden  and  others  who  have 
described  the  illustrations  have  not  noticed  that  there  are 
wings  attached  to  the  shoulders  of  the  dreamer,  and  a  cord 
reaching  up  into  the  foliage  above,  evidently  intended  to 
indicate  that  the  spirit  has  "sped  forth  into  space." 

In  the  second,  there  is  the  same  figure,  drawn  on  a  larger 
scale,  but  without  the  wings,  standing  by  a  river.  He  has 
now  passed  through  the  illumined  forest-land: 

The  hill-sides  there  were  crowned 

with  crystal  cliffs  full  clear, 

and  holts  and  woods,  all  bright  with  boles, 

blue  as  the  blue  of  Inde, 

and  trembling  leaves,  on  every  branch, 

as  burnished  silver  shone — 

with  shimmering  sheen  they  glistened, 

touched  by  the  gleam  of  the  glades : 

and  the  gravel  I  ground  upon  that  strand 

was  precious  orient  pearl. 

The  sun's  own  light  had  paled  before 

that  sight  so  wondrous  fair. 

In  the  third  picture,  he  is  again  represented  in  a  similar 
position,  with  hands  raised,  and  on  the  opposite  side  is  Pearl, 
dressed  in  white,  in  the  costume  of  Richard  II's  and  Henry 
IV's  time;  her  dress  is  buttoned  tight  up  to  the  neck,  and 
on  her  head  is  a  crown. 

In  the  fourth,  the  author  is  kneeling  by  the  water,  and, 
beyond  the  stream,  is  depicted  the  citadel,  on  the  embattled 
walls  of  which  Pearl  again  appears,  with  her  arms  extended 
towards  him. 


36o     'Tearl,''  "Cleanness,"  "Patience,"  etc. 

The  metre  of  Pearl  is  a  stanza  of  twelve. lines  jsvrith  four 
accents,  rimed  according  to  the  scheme  ababababbebe,  and 
combining  rime  with  alliteration;  there  are  one  hundred  and 
one  such  verses;  these  divide  again  into  twenty  sections,  each 
consisting  of  five  stanzas  with  the  same  refrain — one  section 
exceptionally  contains  six  stanzas.  Throughout  the  poem, 
the  last  or  main  word  of  the  refrain  is  caught  up  in  the  first 
line  of  the  next  stanza.  Finally,  the  last  line  of  the  poem  is 
almost  identical  with  the  first,  and  rounds  off  the  whole. 
The  alliteration  is  not  slavishly  maintained,  and  the  trisyllabic 
movement  of  the  feet  adds  to  the  ease  and  music  of  the  verse ; 
in  each  line  there  is  a  well-defined  caesura.  Other  writers 
before  and  after  the  author  used  this  form  of  metre;  but  no 
extant  specimen  shows  such  mastery  of  the  stanza,  which, 
whatever  may  be  its  origin,  has  some  kinship  with  the  sonnet, 
though  a  less  monumental  form,  the  first  eight  lines  resembling 
the  sonnet's  octave,  the  final  quatrain  the  sonnet's  sestet,  and 
the  whole  hundred  and  one  stanzas  of  Pearl  reminding  one  of 
a  great  sonnet-sequence.  As  the  present  writer  has  said 
elsewhere — 

the  refrain,  the  repetition  of  the  catchword  of  each  verse,  the 
trammels  of  alliteration,  all  seem  to  have  offered  no  difficulty  to  the 
poet;  and,  if  power  over  technical  difficulties  constitutes  in  any 
way  a  poet's  greatness,  the  author  of  Pearl,  from  this  point  of  view 
alone,  must  take  high  rank  among  English  poets.  With  a  rich 
vocabulary  at  his  command,  consisting,  on  the  one  hand,  of  allitera- 
tive phrases  and  "native  mother  words,"  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
of  the  poetical  phraseology  of  the  great  French  classics  of  his  time, 
he  succeeded  in  producing  a  series  of  stanzas  so  simple  in  syntax,  so 
varied  in  rhythmical  effect,  now  lyrical,  now  epical,  never  undignified, 
as  to  leave  the  impression  that  no  form  of  metre  could  have  been 
more  suitably  chosen  for  this  elegiac  theme. ^ 

The  diction  of  the  poem  has  been  considered  faulty  by 
reason  of  its  copiousness ;  but  the  criticism  does  not  appear  to 
be  just.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  author  has  drawn  alike 
from  the  English,  Scandinavian,  and  Romance  elements  of 
English  speech. 

The  attention  of  scholars  has  recently  been  directed  to 
Boccaccio's    Latin    eclogue    Olympia,    in    which    his    young 

1  Introduction  to  Pearl  (1891). 


"  Cleanness"  and  "  Patience  "  361 

daughter,  Violante,  appears  transfigured,  much  in  the  same 
way  as  Pearl  in  the  Enghsh  poem;  and  an  ingenious  attempt 
has  been  made  to  prove  the  direct  debt  of  the  Enghsh  poet  to 
his  great  Itahan  contemporary.  The  comparison  of  the  two 
poems  is  a  fascinating  study,  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  direct 
indebtedness;  both  writers,  though  their  elegies  are  different 
in  form,  have  drawn  from  the  same  sources.  Even  were  it 
proved  that  such  debt  must  actually  be  taken  into  account 
in  dealing  with  the  English  poem,  it  would  not  help,  but 
rather  gainsay,  the  ill-founded  theory  that  would  make  Pearl 
a  pure  allegory,  a  mere  literary  device,  impersonal  and  unreal. 
The  eclogue  was  written  soon  after  the  year  1358. 

The  second  poem  in  the  MS.,  Cleanness,  relates,  in  epic 
style,  three  great  subjects  from  scriptural  history,  so  chosen 
as  to  enforce  the  lesson  of  purity.  After  a  prologue,  treating 
of  the  parable  of  the  Marriage  Feast,  the  author  deals  in  charac- 
teristic manner  with  the  Flood,  the  destruction  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  and  the  fall  of  Belshazzar.  The  poem  is 
written  in  long  lines,  alliterative  and  rimeless,  and  is  divided 
into  thirteen  sections  of  varying  length,  the  whole  consisting 
of  181 2  lines. 

The  third  poem  is  a  metrical  rendering  of  the  story  of 
Jonah,  and  its  subject,  too,  as  in  the  case  of  Cleanness,  is 
indicated  by  its  first  word.  Patience.  Though,  at  first  sight, 
the  metre  of  the  two  poems  seems  to  be  identical  throughout, 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  lines  of  Patience  divide  into  what 
may  almost  be  described  as  stanzas  of  four  lines ;  towards  the 
end  of  the  poem,  there  is  a  three-line  group,  either  designed 
so  by  the  poet  or  due  to  scribal  omission.  The  same  tendency 
towards  the  four-lined  stanza  is  to  be  found  in  parts  of  Cleanness, 
more  especially  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  poem.  Patience 
consists  of  531  Hnes;  it  is  terser,  more  vivid  and  more  highly 
finished,  than  the  longer  poem  Cleanness.  It  is  a  masterly 
paraphrase  of  Scripture,  bringing  the  story  clearly  and  forcibly 
home  to  Enghsh  folk  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  author's 
delight  in  his  subject  is  felt  in  every  line.  In  Cleanness, 
especially  characteristic  of  the  author  is  the  description  of 
the  holy  vessels — the  basins  of  gold,  and  the  cups,  arrayed 
like  castles  with  battlements,  with  towers  and  lofty  pinnacles, 
with  branches  and  leaves  portrayed  upon  them,  the  flowers 


362    *Tearl,"  "Cleanness,"  "Patience,"  etc. 

being  white  pearl,  and  the  fruit  flaming  gems.  The  two  poems, 
Cleanness  and  Patience,  judged  by  the  tests  of  vocabulary, 
richness  of  expression,  rhythm,  descriptive  power,  spirit  and 
tone,  delight  in  nature,  more  especially  when  agitated  by 
storm  and  tempest,  are  manifestly  by  the  same  author  as 
Pearl,  to  which  poem,  indeed,  they  may  be  regarded  as  pen- 
dants, dwelling  more  definitely  on  its  two  main  themes — 
purity  and  submission  to  the  Divine  will.  The  link  that  binds 
Cleanness  to  Pearl  is  unmistakable.  The  pearl  is  there  again 
taken  as  the  type  of  purity : 

How  canst  thou  approach  His  court  save  thou  be  clean  ? 

Through  shrift  thou  may'st  shine,  though  thou  hast  served  shame; 

thou  may'st  become  pure  through  penance,  till  thou  art  a  pearl. 

The  pearl  is  praised  wherever  gems  are  seen, 

though  it  be  not  the  dearest  by  way  of  merchandise. 

Why  is  the  pearl  so  prized,  save  for  its  purity, 

that  wins  praise  for  it  above  all  white  stones? 

It  shineth  so  bright;  it  is  so  round  of  shape; 

without  fault  or  stain;  if  it  be  truly  a  pearl. 

It  becometh  never  the  worse  for  wear, 

be  it  ne'er  so  old,  if  it  remain  but  whole. 

If  by  chance  't  is  uncared  for  and  becometh  dim, 

left  neglected  in  some  lady's  bower, 

wash  it  worthily  in  wine,  as  its  nature  requireth: 

it  becometh  e'en  clearer  than  ever  before. 

So  if  a  mortal  be  defiled  ignobly, 

yea,  polluted  in  soul,  let  him  seek  shrift; 

he  may  purify  him  by  priest  and  by  penance, 

and  grow  brighter  than  beryl  or  clustering  pearls. 

If  there  were  any  doubt  of  identity  of  authorship  in  respect 
of  the  two  poems,  it  would  be  readily  dispelled  by  a  com- 
parison of  the  Deluge  in  Cleanness  with  the  sea-storm  in 
Patience.  Cleanness  and  Patience  place  their  author  among 
the  older  English  epic  poets.  They  show  us  more  clearly 
than  Pearl  that  the  poet  is  a  "backward  Hnk"  to  the  distant 
days  of  Cynewulf ;  it  is  with  the  Old  English  epic  poets  that  he 
must  be  compared  if  the  special  properties  of  these  poems 
are  to  be  understood.  But  in  one  gift  he  is  richer  than  his 
predecessors — the  gift  of  humour.  Earlier  English  literature 
cannot  give  us  any  such  combination  of  didactic  intensity  and 


"  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight  "    363 

grim  fancy  as  the  poet  displays  at  times  in  these  small  epics. 
One  instance  may  be  quoted,  namely,  the  description  of 
Jonah's  abode  in  the  whale : 

As  a  mote  in  at  a  minster  door,  so  mighty  were  its  jaws, 

Jonah  enters  by  the  gills,  through  slime  and  gore; 

he  reeled  in  through  a  gullet,  that  seemed  to  him  a  road, 

tumbling  about,  aye  head  over  heels, 

till  he  staggers  to  a  place  as  broad  as  a  hall ; 

then  he  fixes  his  feet  there  and  gropes  all  about, 

and  stands  up  in  its  belly,  that  stank  as  the  devil; 

in  sorry  plight  there,  'mid  grease  that  savoured  as  hell 

his  bower  was  arrayed,  who  would  fain  risk  no  ill. 

Then  he  lurks  there  and  seeks  in  each  nook  of  the  navel 

the  best  sheltered  spot,  yet  nowhere  he  finds 

rest  or  recovery,  but  filthy  mire 

wherever  he  goes;  but  God  is  ever  dear; 

and  he  tarried  at  length  and  called  to  the  Prince.  .  .  , 

Then  he  reached  a  nook  and  held  himself  there, 

where  no  foul  filth  encumbered  him  about. 

He  sat  there  as  safe,  save  for  darkness  alone, 

as  in  the  boat's  stern,  where  he  had  slept  ere. 

Thus,  m  the  beast's  bowel,  he  abides  there  alive, 

three  days  and  three  nights,  thinking  aye  on  the  Lord, 

His  might  and  His  mercy  and  His  measure  eke; 

now  he  knows  Him  in  woe,  who  would  not  in  weal. 

A  fourth  poem  follows  Cleanness  and  Patience  in  the  MS. 
— the  romance  of  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight.  At  a 
glance  it  is  clear,  as  one  turns  the  leaves,  that  the  metre  of 
the  poem  is  a  combination  of  the  alliterative  measure  with 
the  occasional  introduction  of  a  lyrical  burden,  introduced 
by  a  short  verse  of  one  accent,  and  riming  according  to  the 
scheme  ababa,  which  breaks  the  poem  at  irregular  intervals, 
evidently  marking  various  stages  of  the  narrative.  The  metre 
blends  the  epic  rhythm  of  Cleanness  and  Patience  with  the 
lyrical  strain  of  Pearl.  The  illustrations  preceding  this  poem 
are  obviously  scenes  from  medieval  romance;  above  one  of 
the  pictures,  representing  a  stolen  interview  between  a  lady 
and  a  knight,  is  a  couplet  not  found  elsewhere  in  the  MS.: 

Mi  mind  is  mukel  on  on,  that  wil  me  noght  amende: 

Sum  time  was  trewe  as  ston,  and  fro  schame  couthe  her  defende. 

The  romance  deals  with  a  weird   adventure  that   befell 


364   "Pearl,"  "Cleanness,"  "Patience,"  etc. 

Sir  Gawain,  son  of  Loth,  and  nephew  of  king  Arthur,  the 
favourite  hero  of  medieval  romance,  more  especially  in  the 
literature  of  the  west  and  northern  parts  of  England,  where, 
in  all  probability,  traditions  of  the  knight  lived  on  from  early 
times;  the  depreciation  of  the  hero  in  later  English  literature 
was  due  to  the  direct  influence  of  one  particular  class  of  French 
romances.  Gaston  Paris,  in  Volume  xxx  of  UHistoire  Lit- 
ter aire  de  la  France,  1888,  has  surveyed  the  whole  field  of 
medieval  literature  dealing  with  Sir  Gawain;  according  to 
his  view,  the  present  romance  is  the  jewel  of  English  medieval 
literature,  and  it  may,  perhaps,  be  considered  the  jewel  of 
medieval  romance.  To  Madden  belongs  the  honour  of  first 
having  discovered  the  poem,  and  of  having  brought  it  out 
in  his  great  collection,  Syr  Gawayne... Ancient  Romance  poems 
by  Scottish  and  English  Authors  relating  to  that  celebrated  Knight 
of  the  Round  Table,  published  by  the  Bannatyne  Club,  1839. 
The  place  of  Sir  Gawayne  in  the  history  of  English  metrical 
romances  is  treated  of  elsewhere  ^ ;  in  the  present  chapter  Sir 
Gawayne  is  considered  mainly  as  the  work  of  the  author  of 
Pearl. 

The  story  tells  how  on  a  New  Year's  Day,  when  Arthur 
and  his  knights  are  feasting  at  Camelot,  a  great  knight  clad 
in  green,  mounted  on  a  green  horse,  and  carrying  a  Danish  axe, 
enters  the  hall,  and  challenges  one  of  Arthur's  knights;  the 
conditions  being  that  the  knight  must  take  oath  that,  after 
striking  the  first  blow,  he  will  seek  the  Green  Knight  twelve 
months  hence  and  receive  a  blow  in  return.  Gawain  is  allowed 
to  accept  the  challenge,  takes  the  axe  and  smites  the  Green 
Knight  so  that  the  head  rolls  from  the  body;  the  trunk  takes 
up  the  head,  which  the  hand  holds  out  while  it  repeats  the 
challenge  to  Gawain  to  meet  him  at  the  Green  Chapel  next 
New  Year's  morning,  and  then  departs.  Gawain,  in  due  course, 
journeys  north,  and  wanders  through  wild  districts,  unable  to 
find  the  Green  Chapel ;  on  Christmas  Eve  he  reaches  a  castle, 
and  asks  to  be  allowed  to  stay  there  for  the  night:  he  is  wel- 
comed by  the  lord  of  the  castle,  who  tells  him  that  the  Green 
Chapel  is  near,  and  invites  him  to  remain  for  the  Christmas 
feast.  The  lord,  on  each  of  the  last  three  days  of  the  year, 
goes  a-hunting;  Gawain   is  to  stay  behind  w^ith  the  lady  of 

'  See  Chapter  xiii. 


The  Sources  of  Sir  Gawayne  3^5 

the  castle ;  the  lord  makes  the  bargain  that,  on  his  return  from 
hunting,  each  shall  exchange  what  has  been  won  during  the 
day;  the  lady  puts  Gawain's  honour  to  a  severe  test  during  the 
lord's  absence:  he  receives  a  kiss  from  her;  in  accordance 
with  the  compact,  he  does  not  fail  to  give  the  kiss  to  the  hus- 
band on  his  return;  there  is  a  similar  episode  on  the  next  day 
when  two  kisses  are  received  and  given  by  Gawain;  on  the 
third  day,  in  addition  to  three  kisses,  Gawain  receives  a  green 
lace  from  the  lady,  which  has  the  virtue  of  saving  the  wearer 
from  harm.  Mindful  of  his  next  day's  encounter  with  the 
Green  Knight,  Gawain  gives  the  three  kisses  to  his  host,  but 
makes  no  mention  of  the  lace.  Next  morning,  he  rides  forth 
and  comes  to  the  Green  Chapel,  a  cave  in  a  wild  district;  the 
Green  Knight  appears  with  his  axe;  Gawain  kneels;  as  the 
axe  descends,  Gawain  flinches,  and  is  twitted  by  the  knight; 
the  second  time  Gawain  stands  as  still  as  a  stone,  and  the 
Green  Knight  raises  the  axe,  but  pauses;  the  third  time  the 
knight  strikes  him,  but,  though  the  axe  falls  on  Gawain's  neck, 
his  wound  is  only  slight.  Gawain  now  declares  that  he  has 
stood  one  stroke  for  another,  and  that  the  compact  is  settled 
between  them.  Then  the  Green  Knight  reveals  himself  to 
Gawain  as  his  host  at  the  castle;  he  knows  all  that  has  taken 
place.  "That  woven  lace  which  thou  wearest  mine  own  wife 
wove  it;  I  know  it  well;  I  know  too  thy  kisses,  and  thy  trials, 
and  the  wooing  of  my  wife;  I  wrought  it  myself.  I  sent  her 
to  tempt  thee,  and  methinks  thou  art  the  most  faultless  hero 
that  ever  walked  the  earth.  As  pearls  are  of  more  price  than 
white  peas,  so  is  Gawain  of  more  price  than  other  gay  knights.'' 
But  for  his  concealing  the  magic  lace  he  would  have  escaped 
unscathed.  The  name  of  the  Green  Knight  is  given  as  Bem- 
lak  de  Hautdesert ;  the  contriver  of  the  test  is  Morgan  le  Fay, 
Arthur's  half-sister,  who  wished  to  try  the  knights  and  frighten 
Guinevere;  Gawain  returns  to  court  and  tells  the  story;  and 
the  lords  and  ladies  of  the  Round  Table  lovingly  agree  to 
wear  a  bright  green  lace  in  token  of  this  adventure,  and  in 
honour  of  Gawain,  who  disparages  himself  as  cowardly  and 
covetous.  And  ever  more  the  badge  was  deemed  the  glory  of 
the  Round  Table,  and  he  that  had  it  was  held  in  honour. 

The  author  derived  his  materials  from  some  lost  original ; 
he  states  that  the  story  had  long  been  "locked  in  lettered 


366    "Pearl,"  "Cleanness,"  "Patience,"  etc. 

lore."  His  original  was,  no  doubt,  in  French  or  Anglo  French. 
The  oldest  form  of  the  challenge  and  the  beheading  is  an  Old 
Irish  heroic  legend.  Fled  Brier  end  (the  feast  of  Bricriu),  pre- 
serv^ed  in  a  IMS.  of  the  end  of  the  eleventh  or  the  beginning 
of  the  twelfth  century,  where  the  story  is  told  by  Cuchulinn, 
the  giant  being  Uath  Mac  Denomain,  who  dwelt  near  the 
lake.  The  Cuchulinn  episode  had,  in  due  course,  become 
incorporated  in  Arthurian  literature.  The  French  version 
nearest  to  the  Gawain  story  that  has  so  far  been  pointed  out  was 
discovered  by  Madden  in  the  first  continuation  by  Gautier 
de  Doulens  of  Chretien's  Conte  del  Graal,  where  the  story  is 
connected  with  Carados,  Arthur's  nephew,  and  differs  in  many 
important  respects  from  the  English  version  of  the  romance. 
There  is  much  to  be  said  in  favour  of  Miss  Weston's  conclusion 
that  "  it  seems  difficult  to  understand  how  anyone  could  have 
regarded  this  version,  ill-motived  as  it  is,  and  utterly  lacking 
in  the  archaic  details  of  the  English  poem,  as  the  source  of 
that  work.  It  should  probably  rather  be  considered  as  the 
latest  in  form,  if  not  in  date,  of  all  the  versions,"  There  is,  of 
course,  no  doubt  whatsoever  that  we  have  in  the  French 
romance  substantially  the  same  story,  with  the  two  main 
episodes,  namely,  the  beheading  and  the  test  at  the  castle; 
our  poet's  direct  original  is  evidently  lost — he  no  doubt  well 
knew  the  Conte  del  Graal — but  we  are  able  to  judge  that  what- 
ever other  source  he  may  have  used,  he  brought  his  own 
genius  to  bear  in  the  treatment  of  the  theme.  It  would  seem 
as  though  the  figure  of  Gawain,  "the  falcon  of  the  month 
of  May,"  the  traditional  type  and  embodiment  of  all  that  was 
chivalrous  and  knightly,  is  drawn  from  some  contemporary 
knight,  and  the  whole  poem  may  be  connected  with  the  founda- 
tion of  the  order  of  the  Garter,  which  is  generally  assigned 
to  about  the  year  1345.  From  this  standpoint  it  is  signifi- 
cant that  at  the  end  of  the  MS.,  in  a  somewhat  later  hand,  is 
found  the  famous  legend  of  the  order:  honi  soil  qui  mal  (y) 
pene;  just  as  a  later  poet,  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  a 
.ballad  of  the  Green  Knight  (a  rifacimento  of  this  romance,  or 
of  some  intermediate  form  of  it),  has  used  the  same  story 
to  account  for  the  origin  of  the  order  of  the  Bath.  The  ro- 
mance may  be  taken  not  to  have  been  written  before  the 
year  1345. 


Purpose  of  "Sir  Gawayne"  3^7 

The  charm  of  Sir  Gawayne  is  to  be  found  in  its  description 
of  nature,  more  especially  of  wild  nature;  in  the  author's 
enjoyment  of  all  that  appertains  to  the  bright  side  of  medieval 
life;  in  its  details  of  dress,  armour,  wood-craft,  architecture; 
and  in  the  artistic  arrangement  of  the  story,  three  parallel 
episodes  being  so  treated  as  to  avoid  all  risk  of  monotony 
or  reiteration.  As  a  characteristic  passage  the  following 
may  be  quoted: 

O'er  a  mound  on  the  morrow  he  merrily  rides 
into   a    forest    full    deep    and   wondrously   wild; 
high   hills   on   each   side   and   holt-woods   beneath, 
with  huge  hoary  oaks,  a  hundred  together  : 
hazel  and  hawthorn  hung  clustering  there, 
with  rough  ragged  moss  o'ergrown  all  around; 
unblithe,  on  bare  twigs,  sang  many  a  bird, 
piteously  piping  for  pain  of  the  cold. 
Under  them  Gawayne  on  Gringolet  glideth, 
through  marsh  and  through  mire,  a  mortal  full  lonesome, 
cumbered  with  care,  lest  ne'er  he  should  come 
to  that  Sire's  service,  who  on  that  same  night 
was  born  of  a  bride  to  vanquish  our  bale. 
Wherefore  sighing  he  said:  "I  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord, 
and  Mary,  thou  mildest  mother  so  dear! 
some  homestead,  where  holily  I  may  hear  mass 
and  matins  to-morrow,  full  meekly  I  ask; 
thereto  promptly  I  pray  pater,  ave, 
and  creed."  ^  » 

He  rode  on  in  his  prayer,   . 

And  cried  for  each  misdeed; 

He  crossed  him  ofttimes  there,  'J^ 

And  said:  "Christ's  cross  me  speed !'^ 

But,  much  as  Sir  Gawayne  show^s  us  of  the  poet's  delight 
in  his  art,  the  main  purpose  of  the  poem  is  didactic.  Gawain, 
the  knight  of  chastity,  is  but  another  study  by  the  author  of 
Cleanness.  On  the  workmanship  of  his  romance  he  has  lav- 
ished all  care,  only  that  thereby  his  readers  may  the  more 
readily  grasp  the  spirit  of  the  work.  Sir  Gawain  may  best, 
perhaps,  be  understood  as  the  Sir  Calidor  of  an  earlier  Spenser. 

In  the  brief  summary  of  the  romance,  one  striking  passage 
has  been  noted  linking  the  poem  to  Pearl,  namely,  the  compar- 
ison of  Gawain  to  the  pearl;  but,  even  without  this  reference 


368    ^Tearl,"  "Cleanness,'^  "Patience,"  etc. 

the  tests  of  language,  technique  and  spirit,  would  render 
identity  of  authorship  incontestable;  the  relation  which  this 
Spenserian  romance  bears  to  the  elegy  as  regards  time  of 
composition  cannot  be  definitely  determined;  but,  judging  by 
parallelism  of  expression,  it  is  clear  that  the  interval  between 
the  two  poems  must  have  been  very  short. 

No  direct  statement  has  come  down  to  us  as  to  the  author- 
ship of  these  poems,  and,  in  spite  of  various  ably  contested 
theories,  it  is  not  possible  to  assign  the  poems  to  any  known 
poet.  The  nameless  poet  of  Pearl  and  Gawayne  has,  however, 
left  the  impress  of  his  personality  on  his  work;  and  so  vividly 
is  this  personality  revealed  in  the  poems  that  it  is  possible, 
with  some  degree  of  confidence,  to  evolve  something  approxi- 
mating to  an  account  of  the  author,  by  piecing  together 
the  references  and  other  evidence  to  be  found  in  his  work. 
The  following  hypothetical  biography  is  taken,  with  slight 
modification,  from  a  study  published  elsewhere.^ 

The  poet  was  bom  about  1330;  his  birthplace  was  some- 
where in  Lancashire,  or,  perhaps,  a  little  more  to  the  north, 
but  not  beyond  the  Tweed;  such  is  the  evidence  of  dialect. 
Additional  testimony  may  be  found  in  the  descriptions  of 
natural  scenery  in  Gawayne,  Cleanness  and  Patience.  The 
wild  solitudes  of  the  Cumbrian  coast,  near  his  native  home, 
seem  to  have  had  special  attraction  for  him.  Like  a 
later  and  greater  poet,  he  must,  while  yet  a  youth,  have  felt 
the  subtle  spell  of  nature's  varying  aspects  in  the  scenes 
around  him. 

Concerning  the  condition  of  life  to  which  the  boy  belonged 
we  know  nothing  definite;  but  it  may  be  inferred  that  his 
father  was  connected,  probably  in  some  official  capacity, 
with  a  family  of  high  rank,  and  that  it  was  amid  the  gay 
scenes  that  brightened  life  in  a  great  castle  the  poet's 
earlier  years  were  passed.  In  later  life,  he  loved  to  picture 
this  home  with  its  battlements  and  towers,  its  stately  hall 
and  spacious  parks.  There,  too,  perhaps,  minstrels'  tales  of 
chivalry  first  revealed  to  him  the  weird  world  of  medieval 
romance  and  made  him  yearn  to  gain  for  himself  a  worthy 
place  among  contemporary  English  poets. 

The  Old  English  poets  were  his  masters  in  poetic  art; 

'Introduction  to  Pearl,  p.  xlvi. 


Hypothetical  Biography  of  the  Poet       369 

he  had  also  read  The  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  the  chief  proflucts 
of  early  French  literature,  Vergil  and  other  Latin  writers;  to 
"Clopyngel's  clean  rose"  he  makes  direct  reference.  The 
intensely  religious  spirit  of  the  poems,  together  with  the  know- 
ledge they  ever3rwhere  display  of  Holy  Writ  and  theology,  lead 
one  to  infer  that  he  was,  at  first,  destined  for  the  service  of  the 
church;  probably,  he  became  a  "clerk,"  studying  sacred  and 
profane  literature  at  a  monastic  school,  or  at  one  of  the  uni- 
versities; and  he  may  have  received  the  first  tonsure  only. 

The  four  poems  presented  in  the  Cottonian  MS.  seem  to 
belong  to  a  critical  period  of  the  poet's  life.  Gawayne,  possibly 
the  earliest  of  the  four,  written,  perhaps,  in  honour  of  the 
patron  to  whose  household  the  poet  was  attached,  is  remark- 
able for  the  evidence  it  contains  of  the  writer's  minute  know- 
ledge of  the  higher  social  life  of  his  time;  from  his  evident 
enthusiasm  it  is  clear  that  he  wrote  from  personal  experience 
of  the  pleasures  of  the  chase,  and  that  he  was  accustomed 
to  the  courtly  life  described  by  him. 

The  romance  of  Gawayne  contains  what  seems  to  be  a 
personal  reference  where  the  knight  is  made  to  exclaim: 
"  It  is  no  marvel  for  a  man  to  come  to  sorrow  through  a  woman's 
wiles;  so  was  Adam  beguiled,  and  Solomon,  and  Samson,  and 
David,  and  many  more.  It  were,  indeed,  great  bliss  for  a 
man  to  love  them  well,  and  love  them  not — if  one  but  could." 

Gawayne  is  the  story  of  a  noble  knight  triumphing  over 
the  sore  temptations  that  beset  his  vows  of  chastity :  evidently 
in  a  musing  mood  he  wrote  in  the  blank  space  at  the  head  of 
one  of  the  illustrations  in  his  MS.  the  suggestive  couplet  still 
preserved  by  the  copyist  in  the  extant  MS.  His  love  for 
some  woman  had  brought  him  one  happiness — an  only  child, 
a  daughter,  on  whom  he  lavished  all  the  wealth  of  his  love. 
He  named  the  child  Margery  or  Marguerite ;  she  w^as  his  "  Pearl " 
— his  emblem  of  holiness  and  innocence;  perhaps  she  was  a 
love-child,  hence  his  privy  pearl.  His  happiness  was  short- 
lived; before  two  years  had  passed  the  child  was  lost  to  him; 
his  grief  found  expression  in  verse ;  a  heavenly  vision  of  his 
lost  jewel  brought  him  comfort  and  taught  him  resignation. 
It  is  noteworthy  that,  throughout  the  whole  poem,  there  is 
no  single  reference  to  the  mother  of  the  child ;  the  first  words 
when  the  father  beholds  his  transfigured  Pearl  are  significant : 

VOL.  1. — 24. 


I 


370  "Pearl,"  "Cleanness,"  "Patience,"  etc. 

"O  Pearl."  quoth  I, 
"Art  thou  my  Pearl  that  I  have  plained, 
Regretted  by  me  alone"  ["bi  myn  one"]. 

With  the  loss  of  his  Pearl,  a  blight  seems  to  have  fallen  on 
the  poet's  life,  and  poetry  seems  gradually  to  have  lost  its 
charm  for  him.  The  minstrel  of  Gawayne  became  the  stern 
moralist  of  Cleanness  and  Patience.  Other  troubles,  too,  seem 
to  have  befallen  him  during  the  years  that  intervened  between 
the  writing  of  these  companion  poems.  Patience  appears  to 
be  almost  as  autobiographical  as  Pearl;  the  poet  is  evidently 
preaching  to  himself  the  lesson  of  fortitude  and  hope,  amid 
misery,  pain  and  poverty.  Even  the  means  of  subsistence 
seem  to  have  been  denied  him.  "Poverty  and  patience," 
he  exclaims,  "are  need's  playfellows." 

Cleanness  and  Patience  were  written  probably  some  few 
years  after  Pearl;  and  the  numerous  references  in  these  two 
poems  to  the  sea  would  lead  one  to  infer  that  the  poet  may 
have  sought  distraction  in  travel,  and  may  have  weathered  the 
fierce  tempests  he  describes.  His  wanderings  may  have 
brought  him  even  to  the  holy  city  whose  heavenly  prototype 
he  discerned  in  the  visionary  scenes  of  Pearl. 

We  take  leave  of  the  poet  while  he  is  still  in  the  prime  of 
life;  we  have  no  material  on  which  to  base  even  a  conjecture 
as  to  his  future.  Perhaps  he  turned  from  poetry  and  gave 
himself  entirely  to  theology,  always  with  him  a  favourite 
study,  or  to  philosophy,  at  that  time  so  closely  Hnked  with 
the  vital  questions  at  issue  concerning  faith  and  belief.  If 
the  poet  took  any  part  in  the  church  controversies  then  be- 
ginning to  trouble  men's  minds,  his  attitude  would  have  been 
in  the  main  conservative.  Full  of  intense  hatred  towards 
all  forms  of  vice,  especially  immorality,  he  would  have  spoken 
out  boldly  against  ignoble  priests  and  friars,  and  all  such 
servants  of  the  church  who,  preaching  righteousness,  lived 
unrighteously.  From  minor  traditional  patristic  views  he 
seems  to  have  broken  away,  but  there  is  no  indication  of  want 
of  allegiance  on  his  part  to  the  authority  of  the  church,  to 
papal  supremacy  and  to  the  doctrine  of  Rome;  though  it  has 
been  well  said  recently,  with  reference  to  his  general  religious 
attitude,  that  it  was  evangelical  rather  than  ecclesiastical. 

It  is,  indeed,  remarkable  that  no  tradition  has  been  handed 


\ 


Theories  of  Authorship 


J/ 


down  concerning  the  authorship  of^Wese  poems;  and  many- 
attempts  have  been  made  to  identify  the  author  with  one  or 
other  of  the  known  writers  belonging  to  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  Perhaps  the  most  attractive  of  these  theories 
is  that  which  would  associate  the  poems  with  Ralph  Strode, 
Chaucer's  "philosophical  Strode,"  to  whom  (together  with 
"the  moral  Gower")  was  dedicated  Troilus  and  Criseyde. 
According  to  a  Latin  entry  in  the  old  catalogue  of  Merton 
College,  drawn  up  in  the  early  years  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
Strode  is  described  as  "a  noble  poet  and  author  of  an  elegiac 
work  Phantasma  Radtdphi."  Ralph  Strode  of  Merton  is 
certainly  to  be  identified  with  the  famous  philosopher  of  the 
name,  one  of  the  chief  logicians  of  the  age.  It  is  as  poet  and 
philosopher  that  he  seems  to  be  singled  out  by  Chaucer. 
Phantasma  Radulphi  might,  possibly,  apply  to  Pearl;  while 
Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight  might  well  be  placed  in  juxta- 
position to  Troilus.  An  Itinerary  of  the  Holy  Land,  by  Strode, 
appears  to  have  been  known  to  Nicholas  Brigham;  further, 
there  is  a  tradition  that  he  left  his  native  land,  journeyed  to 
France,  Germany  and  Italy,  and  visited  Syria  and  the  Holy 
Land.  His  name  as  a  Fellow  of  Merton  is  said  to  occur  for 
the  last  time  in  1361.  Strode  and  Wyclif  were  contemporaries 
at  Oxford,  as  may  be  inferred  from  an  unprinted  MS.  in  the 
Imperial  library  in  Vienna,  containing  Wyclif  s  reply  to 
Strode's  arguments  against  certain  of  the  reformer's  views. 
The  present  writer  is  of  opinion  that  the  philosopher  is  identical 
with  the  common  serjeant  of  the  city  of  London  of  the  same 
name,  who  held  office  between  1375  and  1385,  and  who  died 
in  1387.  But,  fascinating  as  is  the  theory,  no  link  has,  as  yet 
been  discovered  which  may  incontestably  connect  Strode  with 
the  author  of  Pearl,  nor  has  it  yet  been  discovered  that  Strode 
came  of  a  family  belonging  to  the  west  midland  or  northern 
district.  The  fiction  that  Strode  was  a  monk  of  Dryburgh 
abbey  has  now  been  exploded. 

Some  seventy  years  ago,  Guest,  the  historian  of  English 
rh3rthms,  set  up  a  claim  for  the  poet  Huchoun  of  the  Awle 
Ryale,  to  whom  Andrew  of  Wyntoun  refers  in  his  Orygynale 
Cronykil.  ^ 

Guest  regarded  as  the  most  decisive  proof  of  his  theory  the 

>  See  the  Chapter  on  Huchoun  in  Volume  11. 


372  ''Pearl,"  "Cleanness,"  "Patience,"  etc. 

fact  that,  at  the  voidipice  at  the  head  of  Sir  Gawayne  and 
the  Grene  Knight  in  the  MS.,  a  hand  of  the  fifteenth  century 
has  scribbled  the  name  Hugo  de;  but  Httle  can  be  inferred  from 
this  piece  of  evidence;  while  the  lines  by  Wyntoun  tend  to 
connect  the  author  with  a  set  of  poems  differentiated  lin- 
guistically and  in  technique  from  the  poems  in  the  Cotton 
MS.  But  this  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of 
the  various  problems  connected  with  the  identity  of  Huchoun : 
it  is  only  necessary  here  to  state  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
writer,  the  view  which  would  make  Huchoun  the  author  of 
Pearl,  Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight,  Cleanness  and  Patience 
'is  against  the  weight  of  evidence.  By  the  same  evidence  as 
that  adduced  to  establish  Huchoun 's  authorship  of  these 
poems,  various  other  alliterative  poems  are  similarly  assigned 
to  him,  namely.  The  Wars  of  Alexander,  The  Destruction  of 
Troy,  Titus  and  Vespasian,  The  Parliament  of  the  Three  Ages, 
Wynnere  and  Wastoure,  Erkenwald  and  the  alliterative  riming 
poem  Golagros  and  Gawain. 

According  to  this  view.  The  Parliament  of  the  Three  Ages 
belongs  to  the  close  of  the  poet's  career,  for  it  is  supposed  to 
sum  up  his  past  course  through  all  his  themes — ^through 
Alexander,  Troy,  Titus  and  Morte  Arthure.  But  this  theory 
that,  on  the  basis  of  parallel  passages,  would  make  Huchoun 
the  official  father  of  all  these  poems,  in  addition  to  those  which 
may  be  legitimately  assigned  to  him  on  the  evidence  of  Wyn- 
toun's  lines,  fails  to  recognise  that  the  author  of  The  Parlia- 
ment of  the  Three  Ages,  far  from  being  saturated  with  the  Troy 
Book  and  the  Alexander  romances,  actually  confuses  Jason, 
or  Joshua,  the  high  priest  who  welcomed  Alexander,  with 
Jason  who  won  the  golden  fleece. 

Probably  the  work  of  four  or  five  alliterative  poets  comes 
under  consideration  in  dealing  with  the  problem  at  issue. 
To  one  poet  may,  perhaps,  safely  be  assigned  the  two  poems 
The  Parliament  of  the  Three  Ages  and  Wynnere  and  Wastoure,  the 
latter  from  internal  evidence  one  of  the  oldest  poems  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  to  be  dated  about  1351:  it  is  a  pre- 
cursor of  Tlte  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman  A  The  former  poem 
recalls  the  poet  of  Gawayne,  more  especially  in  its  elaborate 
description  of  deer-stalking,  a  parallel  picture  to  the  description 

>  See  Chapter  i,  Volume  11,  Piers  the  Plowman,  p.  37. 


Theories  of  Authoreiiip  37  3 

of  the  hunting  of  the  deer,  the  boar  and  the  fox,  in  Gawayne. 

The  alliterative  poem  of  Erkenwald  comes  nearer  to  the 
work  of  the  author  of  Cleanness  and  Patience  than  any  other  of 
the  alliterative  poems  grouped  in  thf  above-mentioned  list. 
It  tells,  in  lines  written  either  by  this  author  himself  or  by 
a  very  gifted  disciple,  an  episode  of  the  history  of  the  saint 
when  he  was  bishop  of  St  Paul's;  and,  in  connection  with  the 
date  of  its  composition,  it  should  be  noted  that  a  festival  in 
honour  of  i^e  saii;t  was  established  in  London  in  the  year 
1386. 

Internal  evidence  of  style,  metre  and  language  appears  to 
outweigh  the  parallel  passages  and  other  clues  which  are  ad- 
duced as  cests  of  unity  of  authorship  in  respect  of  the  Troy  Book, 
Titus,  The  Wars  of  Alexander snd  Golagros.  For  the  present,  these 
may  bfj  considered  as  isolated  remains  which  have  come  down 
to  us  of  the  works  of  a  school  of  alliterative  poets  who  flour- 
ishes! during  the  second  half  of  the  fourteenth  and  the  early 
yea.rs  of  the  fifteenth  century.  So  far  as  we  can  judge  from 
thf'se  extant  poems,  the  most  gifted  poet  of  the  school  was  the 
a;uthGr  of  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight:  he  may  well  have 
been  regarded  as  the  master,  and  his  influence  on  more  northern 
poets,  and  on  alliterative  poetry  generally,  may  explain  in 
part,  but  not  wholly,  the  parallel  passages  which  link  his 
work  with  that  of  other  poets  of  the  school,  who  used  the 
same  formulae,  the  same  phrases  and,  at  times,  repeated  whole 
lines,  much  in  the  same  way  as  poets  of  the  Chaucerian  school 
spoke  the  language  of  their  master. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Later  Transition  English 
I 

Legendaries  and  Chroniclers 

IT  is  significant,  both  of  the  approaching  triumph  oi^  the  ver- 
nacular, and  of  the  growing  importance  of  the  lo\ver  and 
middle  classes  in  the  nation,  that  some  of  the  chief  contri- 
butions to  our  literature  during  the  two  generations  immedii^tely 
preceding  that  of  Chaucer  were  translations  from  Latin  and 
Norman-French,  made,  as  their  authors  point  out,  expres'sly 
for  the  delectation  of  the  common  people.  Not  less  significaf^t 
are  the  facts  that  much  of  this  literature  deals  with  the  historj'' 
of  the  nation,  and  that  now,  for  the  first  time  since  the  Con- 
quest, men  seemed  to  think  it  worth  while  to  commit  to  writing 
political  ballads  in  the  English  tongue.  *'' 

The  productions  of  this  time,  dealt  with  in  the  present 
chapter,  fall  into  two  main  classes,  religious  and  historical, 
the  former  comprising  homilies,  saints'  lives  and  translations 
or  paraphrases  of  Scripture,  and  the  latter  the  chronicles  of 
Robert  of  Gloucester,  Thomas  Bek  of  Castleford  and  Robert 
Mannynge,  the  prophecies  of  Adam  Davy  and  the  war  songs 
of  Laurence  Minot.  The  two  classes  have  many  character- 
istics in  common,  and,  while  the  homilists  delight  in  illustrations 
drawn  from  the  busy  life  around  them,  the  historians  seldom 
lose  an  opportunity  for  conveying  a  moral  lesson. 

The  earliest  of  the  three  chronicles  mentioned  above  was 
written  about  1300,  and  is  generally  known  by  the  name  of 
Robert  of  Gloucester,  though  it  is  very  uncertain  whether  he 
was  the  original  author  of  the  whole  work.  It  exists  in  two 
versions,  which,  with  the  exception  of  several  interpolations  in 
one  of  them,  are  identical  down  to  the  year  1135.     From  this 

374 


*' Chronicle"  of  Robert  of  Gloucester     375 

point  the  story  is  told  in  one  version,  which  may  be  called  the 
first  recension,  in  nearly  three  thousand  lines,  and  in  the 
other,  the  second  recension,  in  rather  less  than  six  hundred. 
From  an  investigation  of  the  style  it  has  been  supposed  that 
there  was  a  single  original  for  lines  1-9 137  of  the  Chronicle, 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Henry  I,  composed 
in  the  abbey  of  Gloucester,  and  that,  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  a  monk,  whose  name  we  know  from  internal  evidence 
to  have  been  Robert,  added  to  it  the  longer  continuation. 
This  must  have  been  made  after  1297,  as  it  contains  a  reference 
to  the  canonisation  of  Louis  IX  of  France,  which  took  place 
in  that  year.  Then,  in  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
another  writer  found  the  original  manuscript,  added  the 
shorter  continuation,  and  also  interpolated  and  worked  over 
the  earlier  part. 

In  any  case  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Chronicle 
w^as  composed  in  the  abbey  of  Gloucester.  The  language  is 
that  of  south  Gloucestershire;  and  Stow,  who  may  have  had 
access  to  information  now  lost,  speaks  in  his  Annals  (1580)  of 
the  author  as  Robert  of  Gloucester,  or  Robertus  Glocestrensis. 
The  detailed  acquaintance  with  local  affairs  shown  by  the  writer 
of  the  longer  continuation  proves  that  he  lived  near  the  city, 
while  we  have  his  own  authority  for  the  fact  that  he  was 
within  thirty  miles  of  Evesham  at  the  time  of  the  battle  so 
ably  described  by  him.  But,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Chroni- 
cle, also,  there  are  traces  of  special  local  knowledge,  which, 
apart  from  the  dialect,  would  point  to  Gloucester  as  the  place 
of  its  origin. 

The  poem  begins  with  a  geographical  account  of  England, 
borrowed  from  Geoffrey  of  ^Monmouth,  Henry  of  Huntingdon 
and  the  life  of  St.  Kenelm  in  the  South  English  Legendary. 

Next,  Nennius,  or,  perhaps,  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  is 
followed  for  the  genealogy  of  Brutus,  the  legendary  founder 
of  Britain;  and,  from  this  point  down  to  the  English  conquest, 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  is  the  chief  authority.  The  compiler 
is,  however,  by  no  means  a  slavish  translator,  and  he  treats 
his  original  with  considerable  freedom.  Thus,  he  sometimes 
elaborates,  giving  the  speeches  of  historical  personages  in  a 
fuller  form,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  he  frequently  omits  long 
passages.     But  the  episodes  which  stand  out  in  the  memory 


3/6 


Later  Transition  English 


of  the  reader — the  stories  of  Lear,  of  the  "virgin-daughter 
of  Locrine"  and  of  Arthur — are  also  those  which  arrest  us  in 
the  Latin  original. 

Although  it  has  sometimes  been  stated  that  the  author  of 
this  part  of  the  Chronicle  was  indebted  to  Wace,  it  seems  very 
doubtful  whether  the  work  of  his  predecessor  was  known  to 
him.  Such  lines  as  those  which  hint  at  the  high  place  taken 
by  Gawain  among  Arthur's  knights,  or  make  mention  of  the 
Round  Table  may  be  due  to  verbal  tradition,  which  was 
especially  rife  in  the  Welsh  marches.  The  coincidences  are 
certainly  not  striking  enough  to  justify  the  assertion  that  the 
Gloucester  Chronicle  owed  anything  to  the  Geste  des  Bretons, 
though  Aldis  Wright  has  shown  that  the  writer  of  the  second 
recension  was  acquainted  with  Layamon's  version  of  Wace's 
poems. 

For  the  history  of  England  under  the  Old  English  and 
Norman  kings,  the  chief  authorities  consulted  were  Henry 
of  Huntingdon  and  William  of  Malmesbury,  the  former  being 
followed  in  the  narration  of  events,  and  the  latter  in  the  de- 
scriptions and  anecdotes  of  famous  characters.  Occasionally, 
other  sources  are  drawn  upon;  for  instance,  the  story  of  the 
duel  between  Canute  and  Edmund  Ironside  is  from  the  Genea- 
logia  Re  gum  Anglorum  of  Ailred  of  Rievaulx,  and  another  work 
by  the  same  author,  the  Vita  Edwardi  Regis  et  Martyris  is, 
probably,  the  chief  authority  for  the  life  and  death  of  Edward 
the  Confessor.  For  the  reigns  of  Henry  II  and  Richard  I  the 
life  of  Thomas  k  Becket  in  the  South  English  Legendary,  and 
the  Annales  Waverlienses  supplied  some  material,  the  former 
furnishing  almost  word  for  word  the  accounts  of  the  consti- 
tutions of  Clarendon  and  of  the  death  of  the  saint.  Some 
passages  seem  to  depend  on  folk-songs;  and  there  are  others, 
such  as  the  account  of  the  misfortunes  which  befell  the  duke 
of  Austria's  land  in  revenge  for  his  imprisonment  of  Richard 
I,  that  may  be  due  to  tradition.  On  the  whole,  however,  the 
Chronicle  does  not  supply  much  that  is  fresh  in  the  way  of 
legendary  lore. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  the  poem  be- 
comes valuable  both  as  history  and  literature.  The  writer, 
whom  we  may  now  certainly  call  Robert,  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  either  an  eye-witness  of  the  facts  he  relates,  or  had  heard 


"Chronicle"  of  Robert  of  Gloucester       377 

of  them  from  eye-witnesses.  He  had,  moreover,  a  distinct  nar- 
rative gift,  and  there  are  all  the  elements  of  a  stirring  historical 
romance  in  his  story  of  the  struggle  that  took  place  between 
the  king  and  the  barons  for  the  possession  of  Gloucester.  Not 
less  graphic  is  the  description  of  the  town  and  gown  riot  in 
Oxford  in  1263.  We  are  told  how  the  burgesses  shut  one  of 
the  city  gates;  how  certain  clerks  hewed  it  down  and  carried 
it  through  the  suburbs,  singing  over  it  a  funeral  hymn;  how, 
for  this  offence,  the  rioters  were  put  in  prison,  and  how  the 
quarrel  grew  to  such  a  height  that  the  citizens  came  out 
armed  against  the  scholars.  Robert  relates  with  evident  en- 
joyment the  discomfiture  of  the  former,  and  the  vengeance 
taken  by  the  clerks  on  their  foes — how  they  plundered 
their  shops,  burned  their  houses  and  punished  the  mayor, 
who  was  a  vintner,  by  taking  the  bungs  from  his  casks 
and  letting  the  wine  run  away.  But,  he  adds,  when  the 
king  came  and  heard  of  all  this  mischief,  he  drove  the  clerks 
out  of  the  town,  and  forbade  tjieir  returning  till  after 
Michaelmas. 

Picturesque  as  such  passages  are,  they  are  less  valuable 
than  the  powerful  description  of  the  battle  of  Evesham  and 
the  death  of  Simon  de  Montfort,  a  passage  too  well  known  to 
call  for  further  reference. 

The  form  of  this  Chronicle  is  no  less  interesting  than  its 
theme.  Its  metre  is  an  adaptation  of  the  two  half-lines  of 
Old  English  poetry  into  one  long  line,  one  of  its  nearest  rela- 
tions being  the  Poema  Morale.  In  spite  of  the  well-marked 
caesura,  a  relic  of  the  former  division  into  halves,  the  line  has 
a  swinging  rhythm  especially  suited  to  narrative  verse,  and 
the  poem  is  of  metrical  importance  as  showing  the  work  of 
development  in  progress.  ^ 

It  was  not  long  after  Robert  had  added  his  continuation 
to  the  Gloucester  Chronicle  that  Thomas  Bek  of  Castleford 
composed  a  similar  work  in  the  northern  dialect.  The  unique 
MS.  of  this  chronicle  is  preserved  at  Gottingen,  and  is  as  yet 
inedited.  The  work  contains  altogether  nearly  forty  thousand 
lines,  of  which  the  first  twenty-seven  thousand  are  borrowed 
from  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  while  the  remainder,  extending  to 
the  coronation  of  Edward  III,  are  derived  from  sources  not 

«  See  Saintsbury,  History  of  English  Prosody,  i,  67. 


378  Later  Transition  English 

yet  defined.  The  metre  is  the  short  rimed  couplet  of  the  French 
chroniclers. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  South  English  Le- 
gendary, a  collection  of  versified  lives  of  the  saints  in  the  same 
dialect  and  metre  as  those  of  the  Gloucester  Chronicle.  The 
fact  that  certain  passages  from  these  lives  are  incorporated 
in  the  Chronicle  has  led  to  the  conclusion  that  one  person 
was  responsible  for  both;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Chronicle 
is  probably  the  work  of  three  hands,  if  not  of  more,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  say  anything  more  definite  about  the  author- 
ship of  the  Legendary  than  that  it  had  its  origin  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Gloucester  towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  that  more  than  one  author  was  concerned  in  it. 
The  oldest  manuscript  (Laud  io8  in  the  Bodleian)  was  written 
after  1265,  and  is  dated  by  its  editor,  Horstmann,  as  belonging 
to  the  years  1280-90. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  it  had  been  in  hand  a  con- 
siderable time.  As  the  number  of  saints'  days  increased,  it 
was  found  convenient  to  have  at  hand  homiletic  material  for 
each  festival;  and,  as  no  single  monastic  library  would  contain 
manuscripts  of  all  the  independent  lives  required,  these  had 
to  be  borrowed  and  copied  as  occasion  served.  This  was  a 
task  too  great  for  any  one  man,  and  it  is  most  probable  that 
the  monks  at  Gloucester  had  been  gathering  the  legends 
together  for  some  years,  and  that  a  number  of  them  con- 
tributed towards  the  first  redaction.  This  would  partly 
account  for  the  unequal  merit  of  the  lives,  some  of  which  display 
much  more  literary  and  poetic  feeling  than  others.  But,  in 
considering  this  point,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  charm 
of  any  particular  story  depends  largely  on  its  original  source; 
even  the  clumsy  pen  of  a  monkish  translator  could  not  wholly 
disguise  the  beauty  of  such  legends  as  that  of  St.  Francis. 

Although  the  collection  is  of  the  most  varied  description, 
and  comprises  the  lives  of  saints  of  all  countries  and  of  all 
ages  down  to  the  time  of  compilation,  the  best-told  legends 
are  those  of  native  saints;  and,  as  the  style  of  these  is  not  unlike 
that  of  the  author  of  the  longer  continuation  of  the  Gloucester 
Chronicle,  it  is  possible  that  they  may  be  by  him.  Among 
them  may  be  especially  mentioned  the  very  vivid  account  of 
the  career  and  murder  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  which 


The  ''South  Enghsh  Legendary"         379 

displays  considerable  dramatic  power,  and  the  life  of  St. 
Edmund  of  Pontigny  (archbishop  Edmund  Rich,  who  died  in 
1 240) ,  which  treats  of  events  that  were  still  fresh  in  men's  minds 
and,  like  the  Gloucester  Chronicle,  betrays  a  great  admiration 
for  Simon  de  Montfort.  The  same  predilection,  it  may  be 
noted,  is  evident  in  the  life  of  St.  Dominic,  where  Sir  Simon, 
"that  good  and  gracious  knight,"  is  commended  for  having 
lent  his  support  to  the  order  of  preaching  friars. 

Some  of  the  lives,  such  as  those  of  St.  Kenelm  and  St. 
Michael,  are  made  the  vehicle  of  secular  instruction,  and  contain 
curious  geographical  and  scientific  disquisitions,  the  latter 
being  especially  valuable  for  its  light  upon  medieval  folk-  and 
devil-lore  and  for  its  cosmology.  The  most  interesting  of 
all  the  lives  are  those  connected  with  St.  Patrick  and  St. 
Brendan.  The  story  of  Sir  Owayn's  visit  to  purgatory  shows 
all  the  characteristic  Celtic  wealth  of  imagination  in  the 
description  of  the  torments  endured.  Nothing  could  be  more 
terrible  than  the  lines  which  describe  him  as  "dragged  all 
about  in  a  waste  land,  so  black  and  dark  that  he  saw  nothing 
but  the  fiends,  who  drove  him  hither  and  thither  and  thronged 
around  him."  And,  on  the  other  hand,  nothing  could  be  more 
charming  in  its  strange  mystic  beauty  than  the  story  of  St. 
Brendan's  sojourn  in  the  Isle  of  Birds,  and  his  interview  with 
the  penitent  Judas,  permitted,  in  recompense  of  one  charitable 
deed,  to  enjoy  a  little  respite  from  the  pains  of  hell. 

While  the  monks  of  Gloucester  were  thus  busy  with  hagio- 
logy,  similar  activity  was  exhibited  in  the  north  of  England, 
according  to  Horstmann  in  the  diocese  of  Durham,  though  the 
prevalence  of  midland  forms  in  the  texts  points  to  a  district 
further  south.  There  exists  in  many  manuscripts,  the  earliest 
of  which,  in  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  at  Edinburgh, 
seems  to  have  been  written  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  a  cycle  of  homilies,  in  octosyllabic  couplets,  covering 
the  whole  of  the  Sundays  in  the  church  year.  Two  of  the 
later  manuscripts  (Harleian  4196  and  Tiberius  E.  vii),  both 
written  about  1350,  contain  also  a  cycle  of  legends  for  use 
on  saints'  days. 

Considerable  diversity  is  shown  in  the  recensions  of  the 
homilies:  the  Edinburgh  MS.  opens  with  a  prologue,  in  which 
the  author,  like  so  many  writers  of  the  time,  carefully  explains 


3So  Later  Transition  English 

that  his  work  is  intended  for  ignorant  men,  who  cannot  under- 
stand French;  and,  since  it  is  the  custom  of  the  common 
people  to  come  to  church  on  Sundays,  he  has  turned  into 
Enghsh  for  them  the  Gospel  for  the  day.  His  version,  however, 
is  not  a  close  translation ;  it  resembles  Ormulum  in  giving  first 
a  paraphrase  of  the  Scripture,  and  then  an  exposition  of  the 
passage  chosen ;  but,  in  addition  to  this,  there  is  also  a  narracio, 
or  stor}^,  to  illustrate  the  lesson  and  drive  the  moral  home. 
These  stories  are  often  quite  short,  sometimes  mere  anecdotes, 
and  are  derived  from  the  most  diverse  sources :  sometimes  from 
saints'  lives,  sometimes  from  Scripture  and  sometimes  from 
French  fabliaux.  The  homilist  is  an  especial  lover  of  the  poor, 
and  one  of  his  most  striking  sermons  is  that  for  the  fourth 
Sunday  after  Epiphany,  on  the  subject  of  Christ  stilling  the 
waves.  The  world,  says  he,  is  but  a  sea,  tossed  up  and  down, 
where  the  great  fishes  eat  the  small;  for  the  rich  men  of  the 
world  devour  what  the  poor  earn  by  their  labour,  and  the 
king  acts  towards  the  weak  as  the  whale  towards  the  herring. 
Like  Mannyng  of  Brunne,  the  writer  has  a  special  word  of 
condemnation  for  usurers. 

The  Harleian  manuscript  is,  unfortunately,  imperfect  at 
the  beginning,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  it  ever 
contained  the  prologue;  while  the  MS.  Tiberius  E.  vii  was  so 
badly  burned  in  the  Cottonian  fire  that  the  greater  part  of 
it  cannot  be  deciphered.  These  manuscripts,  however, 
show  that  the  homilies  had  been  entirely  worked  over  and 
rewritten  in  the  half  century  that  had  elapsed  since  the  Edin- 
burgh version  was  composed.  The  plan  of  paraphrase,  ex- 
position and  narration  is  not  always  followed,  and,  so  far  as 
Easter  Sunday,  the  stories  are  taken  chiefly  from  Scripture. 
From  this  point,  however,  they  depend  on  other  sources,  and 
they  are  especially  interesting  when  compared  with  the  con- 
tents of  other  northern  poems  of  the  same  period.  The  legend 
of  the  Holy  Rood,  for  instance,  which  runs  like  a  thread  through 
Cursor  Mundi,  is  given  at  great  length,  and  so,  also,  is  the 
graphic  story  of  Piers  the  usurer,  which  occurs  in  Handlyng 
Synne.  Among  the  stories  is  the  well-known  legend  of  the 
monk  who  was  lured  by  a  bird  from  his  monastery,  and  only 
returned  to  it  after  three  hundred  years,  when  everything 
was  changed,  and  no  one  knew  him. 


Homilies  and  Legends  381 

The  legends  which  follow  these  homilies  are  much  more 
restricted  in  scope  than  those  of  the  southern  collection,  and 
are  confined  chiefly  to  lives  of  the  apostles  or  of  the  early 
Christian  martyrs,  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  being  the  only 
English  saint  represented.  But,  while  the  Gloucester  Legen- 
dary seems  to  have  been  intended  only  as  a  reference  book  for 
the  preacher,  the  northern  series  shows  the  lives  in  a  finished 
form,  suitable  for  reading  or  reciting  in  church.  The  verse 
is  polished,  limpid  and  fluent,  betraying,  in  its  graceful  move- 
ment, traces  of  French  influence,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
it  is  not  free  from  the  tendency  to  alliteration  prevalent  in 
northern  poetry.  The  writer  had  a  genuine  gift  of  narration 
and  possessed  both  humour  and  dramatic  power,  as  is  shown 
by  the  story  of  the  lord  and  lady  who  were  parted  by  ship- 
wreck and  restored  to  one  another  by  the  favour  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalene;  and,  like  most  medieval  homilists,  he  excels  in 
the  description  of  horrors — of  fiends  "blacker  than  any  coal," 
and  of  dragons  armed  with  scales  as  stiff  as  steel.  Sometimes, 
a  little  homily  is  interwoven  with  the  story;  and  one  passage, 
which  rebukes  men  for  slumbering  or  chattering  in  church, 
resembles  a  similar  exhortation  in  Handlyng  Synne.  The 
section  on  the  "faithful  dead,"  also,  seems  to  be  in  close  de- 
pendence on  that  work.  Three  of  the  stories  told  occur  in 
close  juxtaposition  in  Mannyng's  book;  and  a  reference  to 
the  story  of  Piers  the  usurer,  which  is  mentioned  but  not  re- 
lated, probably  because  it  had  already  found  a  place  in  the 
homilies,  points  to  the  conclusion  that  the  compiler  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  work  of  his  predecessor. 

The  desire  to  impart  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  to  men 
who  could  understand  only  the  vernacular  likewise  prompted 
the  author  of  the  Northern  Psalter,  a  translation  of  the  Psalms 
in  vigorous,  if  somewhat  rough,  octosyllabic  couplets,  com- 
posed about  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Edward  II.  One  of 
the  three  manuscripts  in  which  it  exists  belonged  to  the 
monastery  of  Kirkham,  but  the  language  is  that  of  a  more 
northerly  district,  and  the  author  probably  lived  near  the 
Scottish   border. 

Further  evidence  of  literary  activity  in  the  north  of  Eng- 
land during  this  period  is  given  by  Cursor  Miindi,  a  very  long 
poem,  which,  as  its  name  implies,  treats  of  universal  rather 


3^2  Later  Transition  English 

than  local  history,  and,  like  the  cycles  of  miracle  plays  which 
were  just  beginning  to  pass  out  of  the  hands  of  their  clerical 
inventors  into  those  of  laymen,  relates  the  story  of  the  world 
from  the  creation  to  the  day  of  doom.  It  opens  with  a  pro- 
logue, which  is,  practically,  the  author's  "apology"  for  his 
undertaking.  Men,  he  says,  rejoice  to  hear  romances  of 
Alexander  and  Julius  Caesar,  of  the  long  strife  between  Greece 
and  Troy,  of  king  Arthur  and  Charlemagne.  Each  man  is 
attracted  by  what  he  enjoys  the  most,  and  all  men  delight 
especially  in  their  "paramours";  but  the  best  lady  of  all  is  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  whosoever  takes  her  for  his  own  shall  find 
that  her  love  is  ever  true  and  loyal.  Therefore,  the  poet  will 
compose  a  work  in  her  honour;  and,  because  French  rimes 
are  commonly  found  everywhere,  but  there  is  nothing  for 
those  who  know  only  E^nglish,  he  will  write  it  for  him  who 
"na  Frenche  can." 

With  this  explanation  the  author  embarks  on  his  vast 
theme,  which  he  divides  according  to  the  seven  ages  of  the 
world,  a  device  copied  from  Bede.  He  describes  the  creation, 
the  war  in  heaven,  the  temptation  of  Eve,  the  expulsion  from 
Paradise,  the  history  of  the  patriarchs  and  so  on  through  the 
Bible  narrative,  sometimes  abridging,  but  more  often  en- 
larging, the  story  by  long  additions,  drawn  from  the  most 
diverse  authorities,  which  add  greatly  to  the  interest  of  the 
narrative.  One  of  the  most  interesting  of  these  additions  is 
the  legend  of  the  Holy  Rood:  this  is  not  told  in  a  complete 
form  in  one  place,  but  is  introduced  in  relation  to  the  history 
of  the  men  who  were  connected  with  it.  In  place  of  the  prophe- 
cies there  are  inserted  two  parables,  probably  from  Grosseteste's 
Chdteau  d' Amour;  and  the  poet  then  goes  on  to  tell  with  much 
detail  of  the  youth  of  Mary,  the  birth  of  Christ  and  His  child- 
hood. Then  follow  the  story  of  His  life  as  given  by  the 
evangelists.  His  death  and  descent  into  hell,  the  careers  of 
the  apostles,  the  assumption  of  the  Virgin  and  a  section  on 
doomsday.  The  author  concludes  with  an  address  to  his 
fellow-men,  begging  them  to  think  upon  the  transitory  nature 
of  earthly  joys,  and  a  prayer  to  the  Virgin,  commending  his 
work  to  her  approval. 

The  humility  betrayed  in  the  concluding  lines  is  all  the 
more  attractive  because,  as  his  poem  shows,  the  writer  was  an 


"Cursor  Mundi  "  383 

accomplished  scholar,  extremely  well  read  in  medieval  litera- 
ture. His  work,  indeed,  is  a  storehouse  of  legends,  not  all  of 
which  have  been  traced  to  their  original  sources.  His  most 
important  authority  was  the  Historia  Scholastica  of  Peter 
Comestor;  but  he  used  many  others,  among  which  may  be 
mentioned  Wace's  Fete  de  la  Conception  Notre  Dame,  Grosse- 
teste's  Chdteau  d' Amour,  the  apocryphal  gospels,  a  south 
English  poem  on  the  assumption  of  the  Virgin  ascribed  to 
Edmund  Rich,  Adso's  Lihellus  de  Antichristo,  the  Ehicidarium 
of  Honorius  Augustodiensis,  Isidore  of  Seville  and  the  Golden 
Legend  of  Jacobus  a  Voragine. 

The  popularity  of  Cursor  Mundi  is  witnessed  by  the  large 
number  of  manuscripts  in  which  it  is  preserved,  and  it  has 
many  qualities  to  account  for  this.  In  the  first  place,  the 
author  never  loses  sight  of  his  audience,  showing  great  skill  i^j 
in  appealing  to  the  needs  of  rude,  unlettered  people  whose 
religious  instruction  must,  necessarily,  be  conveyed  by  way 
of  concrete  example.  He  has  a  keen  eye  for  the  picturesque ; 
his  description  of  the  Flood,  for  instance,  may  be  compared 
with  the  famous  passage  in  the  alliterative  poem.  Cleanness, 
and  he  lingers  over  the  episode  of  Goliath  with  an  enjoyment 
due  as  much  to  his  own  delight  in  story-telling  as  to  a  know- 
ledge of  what  his  hearers  w411  appreciate;  there  is  a  strong 
family  likeness  between  the  Philistine  hero  and  such  monsters 
as  Colbrand  and  Ascapart.  The  strong  humanity  which 
runs  through  the  whole  book  is  one  of  its  most  attractive 
features,  and  shows  that  the  writer  was  full  of  sympathy  for 
his  fellow  creatures. 

The  whole  poem  shows  considerable  artistic  skill.  In 
spite  of  the  immense  mass  of  material  with  which  it  deals, 
it  is  w^ell  proportioned,  and  the  narrative  is  lucid  and  easy. 
The  verse  form  is  generally  that  of  the  eight-syllabled  couplet ; 
but,  when  treating  of  the  passion  and  death  of  Christ,  the  poet 
uses  alternately  riming  lines  of  eight  and  six  syllables;  and 
the  discourse  between  Christ  and  man,  which  follows  the 
account  of  the  crucifixion,  consists  largely  of  six-Hned  mono- 
rimed    stanzas. 

Of  the  author,  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was,  as  he  himself 
states,  a  cleric,  nothing  whatever  is  known.  Hupe's  theory, 
that  his  name  was  John  of  Lindebergh,  which  place  he  iden- 


3^4  Later  Transition  English 

tifies  with  Limber  Magna  in  Lincolnshire,  is  based  on  a  mis- 
reading of  an  insertion  in  one  of  the  manuscripts  by  the  scribe 
who  copied  it;  and  all  that  can  be  affirmed  with  any  confi- 
dence is  that  the  author  lived  in  the  north  of  England  towards 
the  end  of  the  thirteenth  or  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. Some  of  the  later  manuscripts  show  west  midland 
and  even  southern  peculiarities,  but  this  is  only  another 
testimony  to  the  wide-spread  popularity  of  the  poem. 

The  most  skilful  story-teller  of  his  time  was  Robert 
Mannyng  of  Brunne,  who,  between  1303  and  1338,  trans- 
lated into  his  native  tongue  two  poems  written  in  poor  French 
by  English  clerics.  These  two  works  wercyWilliam  of  Wading- 
ton's  Manuel  des  Pechiez,  written,  probably,  for  Norman 
settlers  in  Yorkshire,  and  a  chronicle  composed  by  Peter  of 
Langtoft,  a  canon  of  the  Augustinian  priory  of  Bridlington. 

Unlike  most  monastic  writers,  Mannyng  supplies  some 
valuable  information  about  himself.  In  the  prologue  to 
Handlyng  Synne,  his  version  of  the  Manuel  des  Pechiez,  he  tells 
us  that  his  name  is  Robert  of  Brunne,  of  Brunnewake  in  Keste- 
vene,  and  that  he  dedicates  his  work  especially  to  the  fellow- 
ship of  Sempringham,  to  which  he  had  belonged  for  fifteen 
years.  He  also  tells  us  the  exact  year  in  which  he  began  his 
translation — 1303.  This  information  is  supplemented  by  some 
lines  in  his  translation  of  Langtoft's  chronicle.  Here  he  adds 
that  his  name  is  Robert  Mannyng  of  Brunne,  and  that  he 
wrote  all  this  history  in  the  reign  of  Edward  HI,  in  the  priory 
of  Sixille.  We  gather,  also,  from  an  allusion  in  the  narrative, 
that  he  had  spent  some  time  at  Cambridge,  where  he  had  met 
Robert  Bruce  and  his  brother  Alexander,  who  was  a  skilful 
artist. 

These  particulars  have  been  elucidated  by  the  labours  of 
Fumivall.  Brunne  was  the  present  Bourne,  a  market  town 
thirty-five  miles  to  the  south  of  Boston  in  Lincolnshire; 
Sempringham,  where  was  the  parent  house  of  the  Gilbertine 
order,  is  now  represented  by  a  church  and  a  few  scattered 
houses;  Sixille,  or  Six  Hills,  is  a  little  hamlet  not  far  from 
Market  Rasen,  and  here,  too,  was  a  priory  of  the  Gilbertines. 

Of  William  of  Wadington,  the  author  of  the  Manuel  des 
Pechiez  very  little  is  known.     In  the  prologue  to  his  work, 


"  Handlyng  Synne  "  385 

however,  he  begs  his  readers  to  excuse  his  bad  French,  because 
he  was  bom  and  bred  in  England  and  took  his  name  from  a 
town  in  that  country.  The  apology  is  not  altogether  super- 
fluous, for  his  grammar  is  loose,  and  forms  that  were  archaic 
even  in  the  thirteenth  century  are  of  frequent  occurrence. 
His  versification  is  also  poor,  and,  though  his  normal  form  is 
the  octosyllabic  couplet,  he  does  not  hesitate  to  introduce  lines 
of  six,  or  even  of  ten  syllables.  His  English  audience,  how- 
ever, was  not  critical,  and  the  popularity  of  the  manual  is 
attested  by  the  number  of  manuscripts,  fourteen  in  all,  which 
have  survived.  Most  of  these  belong  to  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, and  Mannyng's  translation,  as  we  have  seen,  was  begun 
in  1303. 

The  English  version  begins  with  an  introduction  of  the 
usual  style,  setting  out  the  plan  of  the  work,  and  stating  the 
object  of  the  author  in  making  the  translation.  He  has  put 
it  into  English  rime  for  the  benefit  of  ignorant  men,  who  de- 
light in  listening  to  stories  at  all  hours,  and  often  hearken  to 
evil  tales  which  may  lead  to  their  perdition.  Therefore,  he 
has  provided  them  in  this  book  with  stories  of  a  more  edifying 
description. 

His  instinct  for  selecting  what  he  feels  will  interest  the 
unlearned  is  at  once  revealed  by  his  omission  of  the  long  and 
dull  section  in  which  Wadington  dwells  on  the  twelve  articles 
of  faith.  Theory  attracts  him  little,  and  he  proceeds  at  once 
to  the  first  commandment,  illustrating  it  by  the  dreadful 
example  of  a  monk,  who,  by  his  love  for  an  Eastern  woman, 
was  tempted  to  the  worship  of  idols.  Then  comes  a  notable 
passage,  also  in  Wadington,  against  witchcraft,  and,  in  ex- 
pansion of  this,  is  given  the  original  story  of  how  a  witch 
enchanted  a  leather  bag,  so  that  it  milked  her  neighbour's 
cows,  and  how  her  charm,  in  the  mouth  of  a  bishop  (who,  of 
course,  did  not  believe  in  it) ,  was  useless.  Thus  he  treats  of 
the  ten  commandments  in  order,  keeping  fairly  closely  to  his 
original,  and  generally  following  Wadington's  lead  in  the 
stories  by  which  he  illustrates  them.  This  occupies  nearly 
three  thousand  lines,  and  the  poet  then  enters  upon  the  theme 
of  the  seven  deadly  sins. 

Mannyng  seems  to  have  found  this  a  congenial  subject, 
and  the  section  throws  much  light  on  the  social  conditions 

VOL.    1. 2S 


3S6  Later  Transition  English 

of  his  time.  Tournaments,  he  says,  are  the  occasion  of  all 
the  seven  deadly  sins,  and,  if  every  knight  loved  his  brother^ 
they  would  never  take  place,  for  they  encourage  pride,  envy, 
anger,  idleness,  covetousness,  gluttony  and  lust.  Further- 
more, mystery  plays — and  these  lines  are  highly  significant 
as  throwing  light  on  the  development  of  the  drama  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century — are  also  occasions  of 
sin.  Only  two  mysteries  may  be  performed,  those  of  the 
birth  of  Christ  and  of  His  resurrection,  and  these  must  be 
played  within  the  church,  for  the  moral  edification  of  the 
people.  If  they  are  presented  in  groves  or  highways,  they 
are  sinful  pomps,  to  be  avoided  as  much  as  tournaments; 
and  priests  who  lend  vestments  to  aid  the  performance  are 
guilty  of  sacrilege. 

One  of  the  best  stories  in  the  book,  the  tale  of  Piers,  illus- 
trates the  wickedness  and  repentance  of  one  of  the  hated  tribe 
of  usurers.  It  is  also  in  illustration  of  this  sin  that  the  gro- 
tesque story  occurs  of  the  Cambridge  miser  parson  who  was 
so  much  attached  to  his  gold  that  he  tried  to  eat  it,  and  died 
in  the  attempt. 

In  respect  of  the  sin  of  gluttony,  not  only  the  rich  are  to  be 
blamed ;  most  people  sin  by  eating  too  much ;  two  meals  a  day 
are  quite  sufficient,  except  for  children,  and  they  should  be 
^  fed  only  at  regular  hours.  Late  suppers,  too,  are  to  be  avoided, 
especially  by  serving  men,  who  often  sit  up  and  feast  till 
cockcrow.  People  should  not  break  their  fast  before  par- 
taking of  the  "holy  bread,"  or  dine  before  they  hear  mass. 

The  seven  deadly  sins  being  disposed  of,  there  follows 
a  long  section  on  sacrilege,  in  which  Mannyng  departs  freely 
from  his  original.  He  says,  indeed,  that  he  will  deal  with 
some  vices  coming  under  this  head  as  William  of  Wadington 
teaches  him;  but  the  lines  following,  in  which  he  apologises 
for  "foul  English  and  feeble  rhyme,"  seem  to  show  that  he 
was  conscious  of  some  audacity  in  taking  so  many  liberties 
with  the  French  poem.  However  this  may  be,  the  account 
of  the  reproof  that  a  Norfolk  bondsman  gave  a  knight  who 
had  allowed  his  beasts  to  defile  the  churchyard,  which  is  not 
in  the  Manuel  des  Pechiez,  and  is,  evidently,  a  true  story,  is 
very  characteristic  of  the  attitude  of  the  Gilbertines  to  the 
privileged  classes.     The  order  was,  as  its  latest  historian  has 


Characteristics  of  Mannyng's  Style        3^7 

pointed  out,  essentially  democratic  in  its  organisation,  and 
the  fearlessness  of  monk  towards  prior  is  reflected  in  the 
approval  that  Mannyng  tacitly  bestows  on  the  thrall's 
behaviour. 

The  churchyard  was  not  only  desecrated  by  use  as  a 
pasture.  It  was  the  meeting-place  of  youths  and  maidens 
for  games  and  ,songs,  and  this  gives  occasion  for  the  grim 
legend,  borrowed  from  a  German  source,  of  the  dancers  and 
carol  singers  who,  on  Christmas  night,  disturbed  the  priest 
in  his  orisons.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  his  own  daughter 
was  tempted  to  join  the  frivolous  company,  he  punished  them 
with  his  curse;  so  that  the  intruders  were  doomed  to  pursue 
their  dance  through  rain  and  snow  and  tempest  for  ever. 
There  is  something  very  charming  in  the  snatch  of  song — 

By  the  leved  wood  rode  Bevolyne, 
Wyth  him  he  ledd  feyre  Merswyne, 
Why  stonde  we?     Why  go  we  noght? 

and  very  grim  is  the  irony  that  dooms  the  dancers  to  repeat 
the  last  line  in  the  midst  of  their  involuntary  perpetual  motion. 
These  qualities  are,  of  course,  inherent  in  the  story,  but  it 
loses  nothing  in  Mannyng's  narration. 

The  discussion  of  the  sin  of  sacrilege  brings  the  author  to 
line  9492,  and  now,  following  Wadington,  he  enters  on  the 
explanation  of  the  seven  sacraments.  But,  as  the  French 
version  supplies  few  stories  in  illustration  of  these,  Mannyng 
makes  up  the  deficiency  by  several  of  his  own.  Then  follows 
a  passage  on  the  necessity  of  shrift,  the  twelve  points  of  shrift 
and  the  graces  which  spring  from  it,  all  treated  with  com- 
parative brevity  and  with  little  anecdotal  illustration. 

It  is  impossible  for  any  short  account  of  Handlyng  Synne 
to  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  its  charm  and  interest.  Man- 
nyng excels  in  all  the  qualities  of  a  narrator.  He  combines, 
in  fact,  the  trouvbre  with  the  homilist,  and  shows  the  way  to 
Gower's  Conjessio  Amantis.  Thus,  he  differs  from  the  anti- 
quary Robert  of  Gloucester  by  being  one  of  the  earliest  of 
English  story-tellers.  He  had  a  vivid  imagination  which 
enabled  him  to  see  all  the  circumstances  and  details  of  occur- 
rences for  which  his  authority  merely  provides  the  suggestion, 
and  he  fills  in  the  outlines  of  stories  derived  from  Gregory 


3^8  Later  Transition  English 

or  Bede  with  colours  borrowed  from  the  homely  life  of  England 
in  the  fourteenth  century.  He  delights,  also,  to  play  upon 
the  emotions  of  his  audience  by  describing  the  torments  of  the 
damned,  and  his  pictures  of  hell  are  more  grim  and  more 
grotesque  than  those  of  Wadington.  He  shows  a  preference 
for  direct  narration,  and,  where  the  French  merely  conveys 
the  sense  of  what  has  been  said,  Manny ng  gives  the  very 
words  of  the  speaker,  in  simple,  colloquial  English.  Homely 
expressions  and  pithy  proverbs  abound  throughout,  and  the 
work  is  full  of  telling,  felicitous  metaphors,  such  as  "tavern 
is  the  devyl's  knyfe,"  or  "kerchief  is  the  devyl's  sail,"  or 
"to  throw  a  falcon  at  every  fly." 

Simplicity  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  striking  features  of 
Mannyng's  style.  Writing,  as  he  says,  for  ignorant  men, 
he  is  at  some  pains  to  explain  difficult  terms  or  to  give  equiv- 
alents for  them.  Thus,  when  he  uses  the  word  "mattock," 
he  remarks,  in  a  parenthesis,  that  it  is  a  pick-axe;  and,  in  the 
same  way,  the  term  "Abraham's  bosom"  is  carefully  inter- 
preted as  the  place  between  paradise  and  hell.  And,  in  his 
anxiety  that  his  hearers  shall  understand  the  spiritual  signi- 
ficance of  religious  symbols,  he  calls  to  his  aid  illustrations 
from  popular  institutions  familiar  to  all.  Baptism,  he  says, 
is  like  a  charter  which  testifies  that  a  man  has  bought  land 
from  his  neighbour,  confirmation  is  like  the  acknowledgment 
of  that  charter  by  a  lord  or  king. 

In  dwelling  on  the  personal  relations  of  man  to  God,  Man- 
nyng,  like  the  author  of  Cursor  Mundi,  often  shows  much 
poetic  feeling.  While  he  paints  in  sombre  tones  the  dreadful 
fate  of  unrepentant  sinners,  he  speaks  no  less  emphatically 
of  the  love  of  God  for  His  children  and  the  sacrifice  of  Christ. 
His  simple  faith  in  the  divine  beneficence,  combined  with  an 
intense  sympathy  for  penitent  man,  lends  a  peculiar  charm 
to  his  treatment  of  such  stories  as  those  of  the  merciful  knight 
and  Piers  the  usurer. 

Apart  from  its  literary  qualities,  Handlyng  Synne  has  con- 
siderable value  as  a  picture  of  contemporary  manners.  Much 
of  what  is  said  on  these  points  is  borrowed  from  Wadington, 
but  still  more  is  due  to  Mannyng's  personal  observation.  In 
his  attacks  on  tyrannous  lords,  and  his  assertion  of  the  essential 
equality  of  men,  he  resembles  the  author  of  Piers  Plowman. 


Contemporary  Manners  389 

The  knight  is  pictured  as  a  wild  beast  ranging  over  the  country , 
he  goes  out  "about  robbery  to  get  his  prey";  he  endeavours 
to  strip  poor  men  of  their  land,  and,  if  he  cannot  buy  it,  he 
devises  other  means  to  torment  them,  accusing  them  of  theft 
or  of  damage  to  the  corn  or  cattle  of  their  lord.  Great  harm  is 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  his  officers;  for  nearly  every  steward 
gives  verdicts  unfavourable  to  the  poor;  and,  if  the  latter  ask 
for  mercy,  he  replies  that  he  is  only  acting  according  to  the 
strict  letter  of  the  law.  But,  says  Mannyng,  he  who  only 
executes  the  law  and  adds  no  grace  thereto  may  never,  in 
his  own  extremity,  appeal  for  mercy  to  God. 

But,  if  Mannyng  is  severe  on  tyrannous  lords,  he  shows 
no  leniency  to  men  of  his  own  calling.  The  common  sins 
of  the  clergy,  their  susceptibility  to  bribes,  their  lax  morality, 
their  love  of  personal  adornment,  their  delight  in  horses,  hounds 
and  hawks,  all  come  under  his  lash,  and,  in  words  which 
may  not  have  been  unknown  to  Chaucer,  he  draws  the  picture 
of  the  ideal  parish  priest. 

Although  the  order  to  which  Mannyng  belonged  was 
originally  founded  for  women,  they  receive  little  indulgence 
at  his  hands.  Indeed,  he  surpasses  William  of  Wadington  and 
the  average  monastic  writer  in  his  strictures  on  their  con- 
duct. God  intended  woman  to  help  man,  to  be  his  companion 
and  to  behave  meekly  to  her  master  and  lord.  But  women  are 
generally  "right  unkind"  in  wedlock;  for  one  sharp  word 
they  will  return  forty,  and  they  desire  always  to  get  the  upper 
hand.  They  spend  what  should  be  given  to  the  poor  in  long 
trains  and  wimples ;  they  deck  themselves  out  to  attract  mascu- 
line attention,  and  thus  make  themselves  responsible  for  the 
sins  of  men.  Even  when  the  author  has  occasion  to  tell  the 
story  of  a  faithful  wife  who  made  constant  prayer  and  offerings 
for  the  husband  whom  she  supposed  to  be  dead,  he  adds, 
grudgingly. 

This  woman  pleyned  (pitied)  her  husbonde  sore, 
Wuld  Gode  that  many  such  women  wore ! 

For  the  ordinary  amusements  of  the  people  Mannyng  has 
little  sympathy;  he  looks  at  them  from  the  shadow  of  the 
cloister,  and,  to  him,  "carols,  wrestlings,  and  summer  games" 
are  all  so  many  allurements  of  the  devil  to  entice  men  from 


390  Later  Transition  English 

heaven,  The  gay  song  of  the  wandering  minstrel  and  the 
loose  tales  of  ribald  jongleurs  who  lie  in  wait  for  men  at  tavern 
doors  are  as  hateful  to  him  as  to  the  author  or  authors  of  Piers 
Plowman;  even  in  the  garlands  with  which  girls  deck  their  tresses 
he  sees  a  subtle  snare  of  Satan.  Towards  children  he  shows 
some  tenderness,  recognising  their  need  for  greater  physical 
indulgence  than  their  elders;  but  he  upholds  the  counsel  of 
Solomon  to  give  them  the  sharp  end  of  the  rod,  so  long  as  no 
bones  be  broken. 

Mannyng's  mode  of  translation  renders  a  precise  estimate 
of  his  indebtedness  to  Wadington  somewhat  difficult.  A  hint 
from  his  original  will  sometimes  set  him  off  on  a  long  digression, 
at  other  times  he  keeps  fairly  close  to  the  sense,  but  interweaves 
with  it  observations  and  parentheses  of  his  own.  He  does 
not  always  tell  the  same  tales  as  Wadington,  but  omits,  sub- 
stitutes or  adds  at  will ;  the  fifty-four  stories  in  the  Manuel  des 
Pechiez  are  represented  in  Handlyng  Synne  by  sixty-five. 
Many  of  his  additions  are  taken  from  local  legends,  and  it  is 
in  these  that  his  skill  as  a  narrator  is  most  apparent.  Un- 
hampered by  any  precedent,  the  stories  move  quietly  and 
lightly  along,  and  may  almost  challenge  comparison  with  those 
of  Chaucer. 

The  verse  of  Handlyng  Synne  is  the  eight-syllabled  iambi^ 
metre  of  the  original ;  but,  as  in  the  Manuel  des  Pechiez,  many 
lines  occur  which  defy  the  most  ingenious  scansion.  The 
language  in  its  state  of  translation  afforded  special  opportunity 
for  these  irregularities;  when  there  was  no  fixed  standard  for 
the  sounding  of  the  inflectional  -e  this  was  apt  to  be  added 
or  omitted  at  the  will  of  the  scribe.  The  three  manuscripts 
in  which  the  poem  has  survived,  the  Harleian,  dated  about 
1360,  and  the  Bodleian  and  Dulwich,  about  1400,  show  many 
discrepancies. 

The  dialect  of  Handlyng  Synne  is  east  midland,  of  a  north- 
ern type,  containing  more  Scandinavian  forms  than  are  found  in 
the  language  of  Chaucer.  The  number  of  romance  words  is 
much  greater  than  in  the  Gloucester  Chronicle,  which  may  be 
explained  partly  by  locality  and  partly  by  the  fact  that  such 
forms  are  always  more  numerous  in  translations  from  the 
French  than  in  original  English  compositions. 

Mannyng's   other  work,   the    Chronicle   of   England,   is  of 


Mannyng's  "  Chronicle  "  391 

less  general  importance  than  Handlyng  Synnc;  though  of 
greater  metrical  interest.  It  consists  of  two  parts,  the  first 
extending  from  the  arrival  of  the  legendary  Brut  in  Britain 
to  the  English  invasion,  the  second  from  the  English  invasion 
to  the  end  of  Edward  I's  reign.  The  first  part,  in  octosyllabic 
couplets,  is  a  close  and  fairly  successful  translation  from 
Wace's  version  of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  Historia  Regum 
Britanniae;  the  second,  in  rimed  alexandrines,  is  taken  from 
an  Anglo-Norman  poem  by  Peter  of  Langtoft. 

Langtoft's  alexandrines,  which  are  arranged  in  vSets  riming 
on  one  sound,  seem  to  have  puzzled  Mannyng,  and  his  attempt 
to  reproduce  them  in  the  fourteen-syllabled  line  of  the  Glouces- 
ter Chronicle  is  not  altogether  successful.  Sometimes  the  line 
is  an  alexandrine,  but  at  others,  and  this  is  most  signifi- 
cant, it  is  decasyllabic ;  moreover,  though  Mannyng  tries  to 
emulate  the  continuous  rime  of  his  original,  he  generally 
succeeds  in  achieving  only  couplet  rime.  Thus  we  see  dimly 
foreshadowed  the  heroic  couplet  which  Chaucer  brought  to 
perfection.^ 

When,  at  the  request  of  Dan  Robert  of  Malton,  Mannyng 
set  about  his  chronicle,  it  was,  probably,  with  the  intention 
of  following  Langtoft  throughout;  but,  on  further  consideration, 
he  judged  that,  since  the  first  part  of  Langtoft's  chronicle 
was  merely  an  abridgment  of  Wace,  it  was  better  to  go  straight 
to  the  original.  So,  after  an  introduction  which  contains 
the  autobiographical  details  already  given,  and  an  account  of 
the  genealogy  of  Brut,  he  gives  a  somewhat  monotonous  and 
commonplace  version  of  Wace's  poem.  Sometimes,  he  omits  or 
abridges;  sometimes,  he  adds  a  line  or  two  from  Langtoft, 
or  the  explanation  of  a  word  unfamiliar  to  his  audience,  or 
pauses  to  notice  contemptuously  some  unfounded  tradition 
current  among  the  unlearned.  Once,  he  digresses  to  wonder, 
with  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  that  Gildas  and  Bede  should 
ha\^e  omitted  all  mention  of  king  Arthur,  who  was  greater 
than  any  man  they  wrote  of  save  the  saints.  In  all  other 
lands,  he  says,  men  have  written  concerning  him,  and  in 
France  more  is  known  of  the  British  hero  than  in  the  lands  that 
gave  him  birth.  But  Mannyng's  characteristic  doubt  of 
Welsh  trustworthiness  leads  him  to  question  the  story  of 
'  Sainstbury,  History  of  English  Prosody,  i,  113. 


392  Later  Transition  English 

Arthur's  immortality.  "If  he  now  Hve,"  he  says  contempt- 
uously, "his  life  is  long." 

All  through  his  version  Mannyng,  as  might  be  expected, 
shows  a  more  religious  spirit  than  Wace;  this  is  especially 
exemplified  in  the  passages  in  which  he  points  out  that  the 
misfortunes  of  the  Britons  were  a  judgment  on  them  for  their 
sins,  and  in  the  long  insertion,  borrowed  from  Langtoft  and 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  of  Cadwalader's  prayer;  and,  as  he 
nears  the  end  of  the  first  portion  of  his  chronicle,  he  draws 
freely  on  Bede,  telling  at  great  length  the  story  of  St.  Gregory 
and  the  English  boy  slaves  and  the  mission  of  St.  Augustine. 

The  second  half  of  the  chronicle  is  much  more  interesting 
than  the  first,  partly  because  Mannyng  adheres  less  slavishly 
to  his  original.  Wright,  in  his  edition  of  Langtoft's  chronicle, 
has  accused  Mannyng  of  having  frequently  misunderstood 
the  French  of  his  predecessor;  but,  though  instances  of  mis- 
translation do  occur,  they  are  not  very  frequent.  The  version 
is  most  literal  in  the  earlier  part;  later,  when  Mannyng 
begins  to  introduce  internal  rimes  into  his  verse,  the  difficulties 
of  metre  prevent  him  from  maintaining  the  verbal  accuracy  at 
which  he  aimed. 

But,  notwithstanding  the  greater  freedom  with  which 
Mannyng  treats  this  part  of  the  chronicle,  his  gift  as  a  narrator 
is  much  less  apparent  here  than  in  Handlyng  Synne.  Occasion- 
ally, it  is  visible,  as  when,  for  the  sake  of  liveliness,  he  turns 
Langtoft's  preterites  into  the  present  tense,  and  shows  a  prefer- 
ence for  direct  over  indirect  quotation.  But  such  interest  as  is 
due  to  him  and  not  to  Langtoft  is  derived  chiefly  from  his 
allusions  to  circumstances  and  events  not  reported  by  the 
latter  and  derived  from  local  tradition.  Thus,  he  marvels 
greatly  that  none  of  the  historians  with  whom  he  is  acquainted 
makes  mention  of  the  famous  story  of  Havelok  the  Dane  and 
Aethelwold's  daughter  Goldburgh,  although  there  still  lay 
in  Lincoln  castle  the  stone  which  Havelok  cast  further  than 
any  other  champion,  and  the  town  of  Grimsby  yet  stood  to 
witness  the  truth  of  the  history. 

For  the  reign  of  Edward  I,  Mannyng's  additions  are  of 
very  considerable  importance,  and,  as  the  authorities  for  these 
can  be  traced  only  in  a  few  instances,  it  is  a  reasonable  con- 
clusion to  suppose  that  he  wrote  from  personal  knowledge. 


Mannyng's  Influence  393 

He  relates  more  fully  than  Langtoft  the  incidents  of  the  attempt 
on  Edward's  life  in  Palestine,  the  death  of  Llywelyn  and  the 
treachery  of  the  provost  of  Bruges  who  undertook  to  deliver 
the  English  king  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  It  is,  however, 
in  connection  with  Scottish  affairs  that  his  additions  are  most 
noteworthy.  Although  he  regards  the  Scots  with  the  peculiar 
bitterness  of  the  northern  English,  he  follows  the  fortunes  of 
Bruce,  with  whom,  as  we  have  seen,  he  had  been  brought  into 
personal  contact,  with  especial  interest. 

The  fragments  of  ballads  celebrating  the  victories  of  the 
English  over  the  Scots  given  by  Langtoft  occur  also  in  Man- 
nyng's version,  and,  in  some  cases,  in  a  fuller,  and  what  seems 
to  be  a  more  primitive,  form.  They  are  full  of  barbaric  exul- 
tation over  the  fallen  foe,  and  form  a  curious  link  between  the 
battle  songs  in  the  Old  English  Chronicle  and  the  patriotic 
poems  of  Laurence  Minot. 

One  other  work  has  been  assigned  to  Robert  ]\Iannyng. 
This  is  the  Medytacyuns  of  ]>e  soper  of  oure  lorde  Jhesu.  And 
also  of  hys  passyun.  And  eke  of  ]>e  peynes  of  hys  swete  modyr, 
Mayden  Marye.  \e  whyche  made  yn  latyn  Bonaventnre  Cardy- 
nall.  In  the  two  manuscripts  in  which  Handlyng  Synne  has 
survived  in  a  complete  form  (Bodleian  415  and  Harleian  1701), 
it  is  followed  by  a  translation  of  the  above  work,  but  this  alone 
is  not  sufficient  evidence  as  to  the  authorship.  The  language, 
however,  is  east  midland,  and  the  freedom  with  which  the 
original  is  treated,  together  with  the  literary  skill  indicated 
in  some  of  the  additions  and  interpolations,  may,  perhaps, 
justify  the  ascription  of  this  work  to  Robert  Manny ng; 
but  the  point  is  uncertain. 

Of  Mannyng's  influence  on  succeeding  authors  it  is  im- 
possible to  speak  definitely.  The  fact  that  only  three  manu- 
scripts of  his  great  work  survnve  points  to  no  very  extensive 
circulation,  and  the  resemblance  of  certain  passages  in  Hand- 
lyng Synne  to  lines  in  the  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman  and  the 
Canterbury  Tales  may  very  well  be  due  to  the  general  opinion 
of  the  day  on  the  subjects  of  which  they  treat.  It  has  been 
noticed  that  the  framework  of  Handlyng  Synne  is  not  unlike 
that  of  Gower's  Confessio  Amantis;  but  the  custom  of  pointing 
the  lesson  of  a  dissertation  by  an  illustrative  narrative  is 
common  to  didactic  writers  of  all  periods,  and  Gower's  adoption 


394  Later  Transition  English 

of  a  method  popular  among  approved  moralists  must  have  been 
intended  to  add  zest  to  the  delight  of  his  audience  in  stories 
which  were  of  a  distinctly  secular  character. 

The  literary  activity  of  the  south-east  of  England  during 
this  time  was  less  remarkable  than  that  of  the  west  and  north ; 
nevertheless,  three  writers  of  some  importance,  William  of 
Shoreham,  Dan  Michel  of  Northgate  and  Adam  Davy,  call 
for  mention  here.  Of  these  writers  two  were  clerics;  the 
third  held  the  position  of  "marshall"  in  Stratford-at-Bow. 

William  of  Shoreham's  works  are  contained  in  a  single 
manuscript  (Add.  MS.  17,376)  now  in  the  British  Museum; 
and,  curiously  enough,  though  the  seven  poems  treat  of  the 
favourite  themes  of  the  medieval  homilist,  they  take  the  form 
of  lyrical  measures.  The  first  deals  with  the  seven  sacraments ; 
the  second  is  a  translation  of  the  well-knovv^n  Latin  Psalms 
printed  in  the  Lay  Folk's  Mass  Book,  of  which  there  are  other 
metrical  versions  in  Middle  English ;  the  third  is  a  commentary 
on  the  ten  commandments;  and  the  fourth  a  dissertation  on 
the  seven  deadly  sins.  Then  comes  a  lyric  on  the  joys  of 
the  Virgin,  and,  after  that,  a  hymn  to  Mary,  indicated,  by 
the  colophon,  to  be  a  translation  from  Robert  Grosseteste. 
Last  of  all,  is  a  long  poem  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  the 
mystery  of  the  Trinity,  the  Creation,  the  war  in  heaven  and 
the  temptation  of  Adam  and  Eve.  Here  the  manuscript 
breaks  off,  but,  from  internal  evidence,  it  is  clear  that  the 
poet  intended  also  to  treat  of  the  redemption. 

Though  he  is  handicapped  by  the  form  of  verse  chosen, 
the  author  shows  a  good  deal  of  artistic  feeling  in  his  treat- 
ment of  these  well-worn  themes.  His  favourite  stanzas  con- 
sist of  seven  or  six  lines,  the  former  riming  abcbded,  the  latter 
aahcch;  but  he  uses,  also,  alternately  riming  lines  of  varying 
length  and  the  quatrain  ahah.  His  poems  are  characterised 
by  the  tender  melancholy  which  pervades  much  English  re- 
ligious verse;  he  dwells  on  the  transitoriness  of  earthly  life, 
the  waning  strength  of  man  and  the  means  by  which  he  may 
obtain  eternal  life  and  he  pleads  with  his  readers  for  their 
repentance  and  reformation. 

From  a  reference  in  the  colophon  to  Simon,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,   we  may  conclude  that  the  present  manuscript 


The  "Ayenbite  of  Invvyt  "  395 

dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  From 
other  colophons  we  learn  that  the  poems  were  composed  by 
William  of  Shoreham,  vicar  of  Chart,  near  Leeds,  in  Kent. 

The  other  important  Kentish  production  of  this  time 
was  the  Ayenbite  of  Inwyt  (the  "again-biting"  of  the  inner 
wit,  the  remorse  of  conscience) ,  the  value  of  which,  however, 
is  distinctly  philological  rather  than  literary.  Our  information 
as  to  its  author  is  derived  from  his  preface  in  the  unique 
manuscript  in  the  British  Museum,  which  states  that  it  was 
made  with  his  own  hand  by  Dan  ]\Iichel,  of  Northgate  in  Kent, 
and  belonged  to  the  library  of  St.  Austin  at  Canterbury,  and 
from  a  note  at  the  end  of  the  treatise,  which  adds  that  it  was 
written  in  English  for  the  sake  of  ignorant  men,  to  guard 
them  against  sin,  and  that  it  was  finished  on  the  vigil  of  the 
holy  apostles,  Simon  and  Jude,  by  a  brother  of  the  cloister 
of  St.  Austin  of  Canterbury,  in  the  year  1340. 

The  Ayenbite  of  Inwyt  was  not,  however,  an  original  work. 
It  was  a  translation  of  a  very  popular  French  treatise,  the 
Somme  des  Vices  et  des  Vertus  (known  also  as  Li  Livres  roiaux 
des  Vices  et  des  Vertus,  and  Somme  le  Roi),  compiled,  in  1279, 
by  fr^re  Lorens,  a  Dominican,  at  the  request  of  Philip  the 
Bold,  son  and  successor  of  Louis  IX.  This,  in  its  turn,  was 
borrowed  from  other  writers,  and  was  composed  of  various 
homilies,  on  the  ten  commandments,  the  creed,  the  seven 
deadly  sins,  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  the  seven  petitions 
of  the  Paternoster,  the  seven  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  seven 
cardinal  virtues  and  confession,  many  of  which  exist  in  manu- 
scripts anterior  to  the  time  of  frere  Lorens. 

The  treatment  of  these  subjects,  especially  in  the  section  on 
the  seven  deadly  sins,  is  allegorical.  The  sins  are  first  compared 
with  the  seven  heads  of  the  beast  which  St.  John  saw  in  the 
Apocalypse;  then,  by  a  change  of  metaphor,  pride  becomes 
the  root  of  all  the  rest,  and  each  of  them  is  represented  as 
bringing  forth  various  boughs.  Thus,  the  boughs  of  pride 
are  untruth,  despite,  presumption,  ambition,  idle  bliss,  hypo- 
crisy and  wicked  dread;  while  from  untruth  spring  three 
twigs,  foulhood,  foolishness  and  apostasy.  This  elaborate  classi- 
fication into  divisions  and  sub-divisions  is  characteristic  of 
the  whole  work,  and  becomes  not  a  little  tiresome;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  very  frequent  recourse  to  metaphor  which 


39^  Later  Transition  English 

accompanies  it  serves  to  drive  the  lesson  home.  Idle  bliss  is 
the  great  wind  that  throweth  down  the  great  towers,  and  the 
high  steeples,  and  the  great  beeches  in  the  woods,  by  which 
are  signified  men  in  high  places;  the  boaster  is  the  cuckoo 
who  singeth  always  of  himself. 

Sometimes  these  comparisons  are  drawn  from  the  natural 
history  of  the  day,  the  bestiaries,  or,  as  Dan  Michel  calls  them, 
the  "bokes  of  kende."  Thus,  flatterers  are  like  to  nickers 
(sea-fairies) ,  which  have  the  bodies  of  women  and  the  tails  of 
fishes,  and  sing  so  sweetly  that  they  make  the  sailors  fall 
asleep,  and  afterwards  swallow  them;  or  like  the  adder  called 
"serayn,"  which  runs  more  quickly  than  a  horse,  and  whose 
venom  is  so  deadly  that  no  medicine  can  cure  its  sting.  Other 
illustrations  are  borrowed  from  Seneca,  from  Aesop,  Boethius,  St. 
Augustine,  St.  Gregory,  St.  Bernard,  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Anselm. 

Unfortunately,  Dan  Michel  was  a  very  incompetent  trans- 
lator. He  often  quite  fails  to  grasp  the  sense  of  his  original, 
and  his  version  is  frequently  unintelligible  without  recourse 
to  the  French  work.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  it  im- 
proves as  it  proceeds,  as  if  he  taught  himself  the  language 
by  his  work  upon  it.  The  same  MS.  contains  Kentish  versions 
of  the  Paternoster,  the  creed  and  the  famous  sermon  entitled 
Sawles  Warde,  which  is  abridged  from  an  original  at  least 
one  hundred  years  older.  It  is  a  highly  allegorical  treatment 
of  Matthew,  xxiv,  43,  derived  from  Hugo  of  St.  Victor's  De 
Aninia,  and  describes  how  the  house  of  Reason  is  guarded  by 
Sleight,  Strength  and  Righteousness,  and  how  they  receive 
Dread,  the  messenger  of  Death,  and  Love  of  Life  Everlasting, 
who  is  sent  from  heaven. 

Certain  resemblances  between  the  Ayenhite  of  Inwyt  and 
The  Parson's  Tale  have  led  to  the  supposition  that  Chaucer 
was  acquainted  with  either  the  English  or  the  French  version. 
It  has  recently  been  proved,  however,  that  these  resemblances 
are  confined  to  the  section  on  the  seven  deadly  sins,  and  even 
these  are  not  concerned  with  the  structure  of  the  argument,  but 
consist  rather  of  scattered  passages.  And,  although  the  im- 
mediate source  of  The  Parson's  Tale  is  still  unknown,  it  has  been 
shown  that  its  phraseology  and  general  argument  are  very 
similar  to  those  of  a  Latin  tract  written  by  Raymund  of 
Pennaforte,  general  of  the  Dominicans  in  1238,  and  that  the 


The  "Ayenbite  of  Inwyt"  397 

digression  on  the  seven  deadly  sins  is  an  adaptation  of  the 
Summa  sen  Tractatus  de  Viciis,  composed  before  1261  by 
WilHam  Pcraldus,  another  Dominican  friar. 

Another  interesting  production  of  the  south-eastern  counties 
is  a  poem  of  a  hundred  and  sixty-eight  octosyllabic  lines, 
riming  in  couplets,  known  as  the  Dreams  of  Adam  Davy,  which 
appears  to  date  from  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Edward 
II.  The  author,  who,  as  he  himself  informs  us,  lived  near  Lon- 
don, and  was  well  known  far  and  wide,  tells  how,  within  the 
space  of  twelve  months,  beginning  on  a  Wednesday  in  August, 
and  ending  on  a  Thursday  in  September  of  the  following  year, 
he  dreamed  five  dreams,  concerning  Edward  the  king,  prince 
of  Wales.  In  the  first  dream  he  thought  he  saw  the  king 
standing  armed  and  crowned  before  the  shrine  of  St.  Edward. 
As  he  stood  there,  two  knights  set  upon  him  and  belaboured 
him  with  their  swords,  but  ;pvithout  effect.  When  they  were 
gone,  four  bands  of  divers  coloured  light  streamed  out  of  each 
of  the  king's  ears. 

The  second  vision  took  place  on  a  Tuesday  before  the 
feast  of  All  Hallows,  and,  on  that  night,  the  poet  dreamed 
that  he  saw  Edward  clad  in  a  grey  mantle,  riding  on  an  ass  to 
Rome,  there  to  be  chosen  emperor.  He  rode  as  a  pilgrim, 
without  hose  or  shoes,  and  his  legs  were  covered  with  blood. 
This  theme  is  continued  in  the  third  vision,  on  St.  Lucy's  day, 
when  the  seer  thought  that  he  was  in  Rome,  and  saw  the  pope 
in  his  mitre  and  Edward  with  his  crown,  in  token  that  he 
should  be  emperor  of  Christendom. 

In  the  fourth  vision,  on  Christmas  night,  the  poet  imagined 
that  he  was  in  a  chapel  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  that  Christ, 
unloosing  His  hands  from  the  cross,  begged  permission  from 
His  Mother  to  convey  Edward  on  a  pilgrimage  against  the 
foes  of  Christendom;  and  Christ's  Mother  gave  Him  leave, 
because  Edward  had  ser\?-ed  her  day  and  night. 

Then  came  an  interval  in  the  dreams,  but,  one  Wednesday 
in  Lent,  the  poet  heard  a  voice  which  bade  him  make  known 
his  visions  to  the  king;  and  the  injunction  was  repeated  after 
the  last  vision,  in  which  he  saw  an  angel  lead  Edward,  clad 
in  a  robe  red  as  the  juice  of  a  mulberry,  to  the  high  altar  at 
Canterbury. 

The    exact    purpose    of  these   verses    is  very   difficult  to 


39^  Later  Transition  English 

determine.  The  manuscript  in  which  they  are  preserved  (Laud 
MS.  622)  appears  to  belong  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury; but  the  allusion  to  "Sir  Edward  the  king,  prince  of 
Wales"  is  applicable  only  to  Edward  II.  Perhaps  they  were 
designed  to  check  the  king  in  the  course  of  frivolity  and  mis- 
rule which  ended  in  his  deposition ;  but  the  tone  is  very  loyal, 
and  the  references  to  him  are  extremely  complimentary.  The 
poems  are,  in  fact,  intentionally  obscure,  a  characteristic 
which  they  share  with  other  prophecies  of  the  same  class, 
notably  those  attributed  to  Merlin  and  Thomas  of  Erceldoune. 
The  same  manuscript  contains  poems  on  the  Life  of  St.  Alexius,. 
the  Battle  of  Jerusalem,  the  Fifteen  Signs  before  Domesday, 
Scripture  Histories  and  the  Lamentation  of  Souls,  which  show 
many  resemblances  to  the  Dreams,  and  may  also  be  by  Adam 
Davy;  if  so,  he  must  have  been  a  man  of  education,  since  some 
of  them  seem  to  be  derived  directly  from  Latin  originals 

The  most  important  national  poems  of  the  first  half  of  the 
fourteenth  century  are  the  war  songs  of  Laurence  Minot,  pre- 
served in  MS.  Cotton  Galba  ix  in  the  British  Museum.  The 
author  twice  mentions  his  name;  from  internal  evidence  it  is 
probable  that  the  poems  are  contemporary  with  the  events 
they  describe;  and,  as  the  last  of  them  deals  with  the  taking 
of  Guisnes,  in  1352,  it  is  supposed  that  he  must  have  died 
about  this  time.  Diligent  research  has  failed  to  discover 
anything  further  about  him,  but  Minot  was  the  name  of  a 
well-known  family  connected  with  the  counties  of  York  and 
Norfolk.  The  language  of  the  poems  is,  in  its  main  char- 
acteristics, northern,  though  with  an  admixture  of  midland 
forms;  and,  in  three  of  them,  the  poet  shows  detailed  acquaint- 
ance with  the  affairs  of  Yorkshire.  Thus,  the  expedition  of 
Edward  Baliol  against  Scotland,  to  which  reference  is  made 
in  the  first  poem,  set  sail  from  that  county ;  in  the  ninth  poem 
the  archbishop  of  York  receives  special  mention;  and,  in  the 
account  of  the  taking  of  Guisnes,  Minot  adopts  the  version 
which  ascribes  the  exploit  to  the  daring  of  a  Yorkshire  archer, 
John  of  Doncaster. 

The  events  which  form  the  subject  of  these  poems  all  fall 
between  the  years  1333  and  1352.  The  first  two  celebrate 
the  victory  of  Halidon  Hill,  which,  in  the  poet's  opinion,  is 
an  ample  recompense  for  the  disgrace  at  Bannockburn;  the 


Laurence  Minot  399 

third  tells  how  Edward  III  went  to  join  his  allies  in  Flanders, 
and  how  the  French  attacked  Southampton  and  took  an 
English  warship,  the  Christopher ;  the  fourth  relates  the  king's 
first  invasion  of  France,  and  Philip's  refusal  to  meet  him  in 
battle;  the  fifth  celebrates  the  victory  at  Sluys,  mentioning 
by  name  the  most  valiant  knights  who  took  part  in  it;  the 
sixth  is  concerned  with  the  abortive  siege  of  Tournay  in  the 
same  year;  and  the  seventh  tells  of  the  campaign  of  1347  and 
of  the  battle  of  Crecy.  Then  come  two  poems  on  the  siege 
of  Calais  and  the  battle  of  Neville's  Cross.  These  are  followed 
by  an  account  of  a  skirmish  between  some  English  ships  and 
some  Spanish  merchantmen;  and  the  eleventh  and  last  poem 
relates  the  stratagem  by  which  the  town  of  Guisnes  was  sur- 
prised and  taken. 

The  poetical  value  of  these  songs  has  been  somewhat  un- 
duly depreciated  by  almost  every  critic  who  has  hitherto 
treated  of  them.  Their  qualities  are  certainly  not  of  a  highly 
imaginative  order,  and  they  contain  scarcely  one  simile  or 
metaphor;  but  the  verse  is  vigorous  and  energetic  and  goes 
with  a  swing,  as  martial  poetry  should.  The  author  was  an 
adept  in  wielding  a  variety  of  lyrical  measures,  and  in  five 
poems  uses  the  long  alliterative  lines  which  occur  in  such 
poems  as  William  of  Palerne  and  Piers  Plowman  in  rimed 
stanzas  of  varying  length.  The  other  six  are  all  written  in 
short  iambic  lines  of  three  or  four  accents,  variously  grouped 
together  by  end-rime.  Alliteration  is  a  very  prominent 
feature  throughout,  and  is  often  continued  in  two  successive 
lines,  while  the  last  words  of  one  stanza  are  constantly 
repeated  in  the  first  line  of  the  next,  a  frequent  device  in 
contemporary  verse.  The  constant  recourse  to  alliteration 
detracts,  somewhat,  from  the  freshness  of  the  verse,  since  it 
leads  the  author  to  borrow  from  the  romance  writers  well- 
worn  tags,  which  must  have  been  as  conventional  in  their 
way  as  the  hackneyed  pastoral  terms  against  which  Words- 
worth revolted.  Such  are  "cares  colde,"  "cantly  and  kene," 
"proper  and  prest,"  pride  in  prese, "  "prowd  in  pall";  with 
many  others  of  a  similar  nature. 

In  spite  of  the  highly  artificial  structure  of  the  verse, 
however,  the  language  itself  is  simple,  even  rugged,  and  the 
poems  dealing  with  the  Scottish  wars  bear  a  strong  resem- 


400  Later  Transition  English 

blance  to  the  rude  snatches  of  folk-song  which  have  already- 
been  mentioned  in  connection  with  Mannyng's  translation 
of  Langtoft's  chronicle.  There  is  the  same  savage  exultation 
in  the  discomfiture  of  the  Scots,  the  same  scornful  references 
to  their  "rivelings"  (impromptu  shoes  made  of  raw  hide) 
and  the  little  bags  in  which  they  were  wont  to  carry  their 
scanty  provisions  of  oatmeal.  And  the  very  simplicity  of  the 
narrative  conveys,  perhaps  better  than  a  more  elaborate 
description,  the  horrors  of  medieval  warfare;  in  reading  these 
poems  we  see  the  flames  spread  desolation  over  the  country, 
while  hordes  of  pillagers  and  rough  riders  are  driven  in  scat- 
tered bands  to  their  own  land;  or  we  behold  the  dead  men 
"staring  at  the  stars"  or  lying  gaping  "between  Crecy  and 
Abbeville."  Nor  is  the  pomp  of  military  array  forgotten; 
we  see  the  glitter  of  pennons  and  plate  armour,  the  shining 
rows  of  shields  and  spears,  the  arrows  falling  thick  as  snow, 
the  red  hats  of  the  cardinals  who  consult  together  how  they 
may  beguile  the  king,  the  ships  heaving  on  the  flood,  ready 
for  battle,  while  the  trumpets  blow,  and  the  crews  dance  in 
the  moonlight,  regardless  of  the  waning  moon  that  foretells 
disaster  on  the  morrow.  Strange  merchantmen,  transformed, 
for  the  time,  into  war  vessels,  loom  in  the  Channel,  hiding 
in  their  holds  great  wealth  of  gold  and  silver,  of  scarlet  and 
green;  but  in  vain  do  these  pirates  come  hither  with  trumpets 
and  tabors,  they  are  already  doomed  to  feed  the  fishes.  There 
is  no  thought  of  mercy  for  a  fallen  foe ;  only  in  one  place  does 
any  sense  of  compassion  seem  to  affect  the  poet.  When  he 
tells  how  the  burgesses  of  Calais  came  to  demand  mercy  from 
Edward,  he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  their  leader  a  pitiful  de- 
scription of  their  plight.  Horses,  coneys,  cats  and  dogs  are 
all  consumed;  the  need  of  the  petitioners  is  easily  visible  in 
their  appearance;  and  they  that  should  have  helped  them  are 
fled  away.  But  Minot  says  nothing  about  the  intercession 
of  queen  Philippa,  related  by  Froissart. 

Minot  seems  to  have  been  a  professional  gleeman,  who 
earned  his  living  by  following  the  camp  and  entertaining 
soldiers  with  the  recitation  of  their  own  heroic  deeds.  It  is 
possible,  however,  that  his  skill  in  versification  may  have  led 
to  his  promotion  to  the  post  of  minstrel  to  the  king,  and  that 
he  held  some  recognised  office  about  the  court.     His  poems, 


Laurence  Miiiot  401 

unlike  those  of  Barbour,  which  were  composed  long  after  the 
occasions  they  commemorated,  were,  probably,  struck  off  to 
celebrate  the  events  as  they  arose,  and  in  one  of  them,  that 
on  the  siege  of  Toumay,  his  exultation  seems  to  have  been 
somewhat  premature.  While  Barbour's  Bruce  is  a  long,  sus- 
tained narrative,  composed  in  the  same  metre  throughout, 
the  verse  of  Minot  is  essentially  lyric  in  character,  and,  as 
has  been  seen,  ranges  over  a  large  variety  of  measures. 

Minot' s  patriotism  is  ever^n^'here  apparent.  His  con- 
tempt for  the  '*  wild  Scots  and  the  tame  "  (the  Highland  and 
Lowland  Scots)  is  undisguised,  and  he  has  equally  small  re- 
spect for  the  lily-flowers  of  France.  When  the  English  meet 
with  misfortune,  he  always  finds  plenty  of  excuses  for  them. 
Thus,  in  the  fight  at  Southampton,  the  galley  men  were  so 
many  in  number  that  the  English  grew  tired,  but,  "since  the 
time  that  God  was  bom  and  a  hundred  years  before,  there 
were  never  any  men  better  in  fight  than  the  English,  w^hile  they 
had  the  strength."  His  admiration  and  loyalty  for  the  king 
are  without  measure.  The  most  is  made  of  Edward's  per- 
sonal bravery  at  Sluys,  his  courteous  thanks  to  his  soldiers 
and  the  esteem  shown  him  by  foreign  dignitaries,  while  the 
poet  continually  insists  on  the  righteous  claim  of  his  sovereign 
to  the  throne  of  France.  And,  though  his  poems  are  some- 
times quite  unhistorical  in  matters  of  fact,  they  are  im- 
portant in  that  they  evidently  reflect  the  growing  feeling  of 
solidarity  in  the  nation,  and  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  which 
made  possible  the  victories  of  Sluys  and  Crecy. 

VOL.  I.— 26 


Vjk 


CHAPTER  XVII 

Later  Transition  English 

II 

Secular  Lyrics;  Tales;  Social  Satire 

FROM  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  to  the  days  of 
Piers  Plowman,  writers  of  English  were  still  polishing  the 
tools  used  in  the  preceding  century.  We  have  seen  their 
predecessors  at  work  in  monasteries  on  saints'  lives  and  religious 
verse;  chroniclers  have  come  under  consideration;  and  the 
flourishing  of  romance,  both  home-grown  and  imported,  has 
been  noted.  It  remains  to  discuss  the  evidence  which  is  grad- 
ually accumulating  that  neither  court  nor  cloister  were  to  exer- 
cise a  monopoly  in  the  production  and  patronage  of  English 
letters:  there  was  also  "the  world  outside."  Certain  of  the 
romances — Havelok  notably — bear  traces,  in  their  extant  forms, 
of  having  been  prepared  for  ruder  audiences  than  those  which 
listened,  as  did  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  plague- stricken 
Florence  towards  the  close  of  this  period,  to  tales  of  chivalry 
and  courtly  love  and  idle  dalliance. 

A  famous  collection  of  Middle  English  lyrics  ^  shows  signs 
that  there  were  writers  who  could  take  a  keen  pleasure  in 
"notes  suete  of  nyhtegales,"  in  "wymmen"  like  "Alysoun  " 
and  in  the  "  northerne  wynd."  There  are  still  poems  addressed 
to  "  Jhesu,  mi  suete  lemman,"  full  of  that  curious  combination 
of  sensuousness  and  mysticism  which  is  so  notable  a  feature 
of  much  of  the  religious  verse  of  these  centuries ;  but  more  purely 
worldly  motifs  were  beginning  to  be  preserved;  tales  which 
were  simply  amusing  and  cared  little  for  a  moral  ending  were 
being  translated ;  and  indications  appear  that  the  free  criticism 
of  its  rulers,  which  has  always  been  a  characteristic  of  the 

»  Harl.  MS.  2253,  Brit.  Mus. 

402 


Secular  Lyrics  403 

English  race,  was  beginning  to  find  expression,  or,  at  any  rate, 
preservation,  in  the  vernacular. 

To  the  early  years  of  the  period  under  consideration  belongs 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  Middle  English  lyrics: 

Sumer  is  i-cumen  in, 
Lhude  sing  cuccu.^ 

Its  popularity  is  attested  by  the  existence  of  the  music  to  which 
it  was  sung  in  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century.  If 
summer  had  not  yet  "come  in,"  spring,  at  any  rate,  was  well 
on  the  way  when  verses  like  these  became  possible.  A  sense 
of  rime,  of  music,  of  sweetness,  had  arrived;  the  lines  were 
settling  down  into  moulds  of  equal  length,  and  were  beginning 
to  trip  easily  off  the  tongue  to  an  expected  close.  And,  instead 
of  the  poet  feeling  that  his  spirit  was  most  in  harmony  with  the 
darker  aspects  of  nature,  as  was  the  case  with  most  of  the 
Old  English  writers  whose  works  have  been  preserved,  the 
poet  of  the  Middle  English  secular  lyric,  in  common  with  the 
poet  of  The  Owl  and  the  Nightingale,  feels  "the  spring- running " 
and  cannot  refrain  from  entering  into  the  spirit  of  it  with 
a  gladsome  heart : 

Groweth  sed  and  bloweth  med. 

And  springth  the  wde  nu.' 
Sing  cuccu ! 
Awe  bleteth  after  lomb, 

Lhouth  after  calve  cu: 
Bulluc  sterteth,  bucke  verteth,' 

Murie  sing  cuccu ! 

The  same  note  is  struck,  only  more  often,  in  the  Harleian 
lyrics  above  referred  to,  which  are  dated,  approximately, 
1 3 10,  and  were  collected,  apparently,  by  a  clerk  of  Leominster. 
The  slim  volume  in  which  these  lyrics  were  printed  sixty-five 
years  ago,  by  Thomas  Wright,'^  contains  poems  familiar,  per- 
haps, to  most  students  of  English  poetry  and  familiar,  certainly, 
to  all  students  of  Enghsh  prosody.  The  measures  of  the 
trouvbres  and  troubadours  had  become  acclimatised  in  England 

>  Harl.  MS.  978.  2  Now.  '  Runs  to  the  greenwood. 

*  Specimens  of  Lyric  Poetry  composed  in  England  in  the  Reign  of  Edward  I, 
Percy  Society,  1842.     Some  had  been  printed  before  by  Warton  and  Ritson. 


404  Later  Transition  English 

— Henry  III  had  married  a  lady  of  Provence — so  far  as  the 
genius  of  the  language  and  the  nature  of  the  islanders  per- 
mitted ;  and  the  attempt  to  revive  the  principle  of  alliteration 
as  a  main  feature,  instead  of,  what  it  has  ever  been  and  still 
is,  an  unessential  ornament,  of  English  verse  was  strong  in 
the  land.  And  first  among  these  spring  poems,  not  so  much 
in  respect  of  its  testimony  to  the  work  of  perfecting  that 
was  in  progress  in  the  matter  of  metre,  as  in  its  sense  of  the 
open  air,  and  of  the  supremacy  of  "humanity,"  is  the  well- 
known  Alison  lyric  beginning 

Bytuene  Mershe  &  Averil 

When  spray  biginneth  to  springe, 
The  lutel  foul  hath  hire  wyl 

On  byre  lud  '  to  synge; 
Iche  libbe^  in  love-longinge 
For  semlokest  of  alle  thynge, 
He  may  me  blisse  bringe, 

Icham  in  hire  baundoun.* 
An  hendy  hap  ichabbe  yhent,* 
Ichot  from  hevene  it  is  me  sent, 
From  alle  wymmen  mi  love  is  lent ' 

&  lyht  on  Alysoun. 

There  is  a  world  of  difference  between  these  lines  and  the 
ideal  of  convent-life  set  forth  in  Hali  Meidenhad.^  By  natural 
steps,  the  erotic  mysticism  that  produced  the  poems  associated 
with  the  Virgin  cult  passed  into  the  recognition,  not  merely 
that  there  were  "sun,  moon  and  stars,"  "and  likewise  a  wind 
on  the  heath,"  but  also  that  there  existed  earthly  beings  of 
whom 

Some  be  browne,  and  some  be  whit.  .  . 
And  some  of  theym  be  chiry  ripe.' 

In  another  of  the  Harleian  poems,  "the  wind  on  the  heath " 
inspires  a  refrain : 

Blou,  northerne  wynd, 

Send  thou  me  my  suetyng. 

Blou,  northerne  wynd,  blou,  blou,  blou! 

•  In  her  own  language.  '  Live.  *  Power. 

♦  Good  fortune  has  come  to  me.  '  Turned  away.       «  See  ante,  p.  254. 

'  A  Song  on  Woman,  MS.  Lambeth  306,  135,  printed  by  Wright  and  Halli- 
Well,  Reliquiae  Antiquae,  i,  248. 


Proverbs  of  Hendyng  405 

which,  by  its  very  irregularity  of  form,  shows  the  flexible 
strength  that  was  to  be  an  integral  feature  of  the  English 
lyric.     Yet  another  poem  has  lines : 

I  would  I  were  a  thrustle  cock, 
A  bountyng^  or  a  laverok. 

Sweet  bride. 
Between  her  kirtle  and  her  smock 

I  would  me  hide: 

which  form  a  link  in  the  long  chain  that  binds  Catullus  to  the 
Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  lyrists.     And  the  lines  beginning 

Lenten  y.s  come  with  love  to  toune. 
With  blosmen  &  with  briddes  roune^ 

are  full  of  that  passionate  sense  of  "the  wild  joys  of  living" 
which  led  "alle  clerkys  in  joye  and  eke  in  merthe"  to  sing 

Right  lovesome  thu  art  in  May  thu  wyde  wyde  erthe. 

The  Proverbs  of  Hendyng,  "Marcolves  sone,"  are  to  be 
found  in  the  MS.  that  contains  the  above  lyrics  and  may, 
therefore,  be  mentioned  here.  They  appear  to  have  been 
collected  from  older  material  in  their  present  form  before  the 
close  of  the  thirteenth  century;  and  they  recall  the  wisdom 
literature  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made  in  dealing 
with  Old  English  proverbs^  and  with  the  poems  attributed 
to  Alfred.  These  proverbs  are  obvious  summaries  of  the 
shrewd  wisdom  of  the  common  folk,  which  is  as  old  as  the 
hills,  and  not  confined  to  any  one  race  or  country : 

Tel  thou  never  thy  fo  that  thy  fot  aketh. 

Quoth  Hendyng  .  .  . 
Dere  is  botht  the  hony  that  is  licked  of  the  thome ; 

and  they  enshrine  many  phrases  that  are  still  common  property : 

Brend  child  fur  dredeth, 
Quoth  Hendyng; 

but  their  main  interest  for  us  lies  in  the  form  of  the  stanzas 
which  precede  the  proverb,  and  which  consist  of  six  lines 
rimed  aabaab;  here  it  is  evident  that  the  nebulous  outlines 

1  Blackbird. 

2  Song.     Cf.  The  Thrush  and  the  Nightingale,  Digby  MS.  8^,  Bodl.,  printed 
in  Reliquiae  Antiquae,  i,  241,  "Somer  is  comen  with  love  to  toune,"  etc. 

3  Cf.  A  Father's  Instruction,  ante,  p.  46. 


4o6  Later  Transition  English 

of  earlier  attempts  have  taken  shape  and  form  out  of  the 
void,  and  become  the  ballad  stanza;  the  unrimed  shorter  lines 
are  now  linked  by  end-rime,  and  the  reciter  from  memory- 
is  aided  thereby. 

The  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  of  a  much  more 
"universal,"  or  cosmopolitan,  character  than  that  of  later 
times — it  will  be  remembered  that  "  the  book"  in  which  Paolo 
and  Francesca  "read  that  day  no  more"  was  the  book  of 
Lancelot  and  not  a  tale  of  Rimini — and  one  of  the  reasons 
for  this  width  of  range  was  that  letters  were  in  the  hands  of 
a  few,  whose  education  had  been  of  a  "  universal,  "  rather  than 
a  national,  type.  English  literature,  in  the  vernacular,  had 
to  compete  for  many  a  long  year  not  only  with  Latin,  which, 
even  so  late  as  the  days  of  Erasmus,  was  thought  to  have  a 
fair  chance  of  becoming  the  sole  language  of  letters,^  but  also, 
though  in  a  rapidly  lessening  degree,  with  Norman-French,  the 
language  of  all  who  pretended  to  a  culture  above  that  of  the 
common  folks.  And  it  is  to  Latin,  therefore,  that  we  have 
often  to  turn  for  evidence  of  the  thoughts  that  were  beginning 
to  find  expression,  not  only  among  monastic  chroniclers  and 
historians,  but  also  among  social  satirists  and  writers  of  po- 
litical verse.  At  first  the  amusement  of  those  only  who  had 
a  knowledge  of  letters,  the  writing  of  Goliardic  verses  and 
political  satires  in  Latin,  became  models  for  the  imitation  of 
minstrels  and  writers  who  set  themselves  to  please  a  wider 
circle,  and  who  made  themselves  the  mouthpieces  of  those 
who  felt  and  suffered  but  could  not  express. 

Some  hint  of  what  the  people  had  liked  to  hear  in  the  way 
of  tales  is  preserved  for  us  in  The  Deeds  of  Hereward,^  a  son 
of  Lady  Godiva,  and  an  offspring  of  the  native  soil,  the  re- 
cital of  whose  horse-play  in  the  court  of  the  king  and  of  whose 
deeds  on  his  speedy  mare  Swallow  would  appeal  to  all  who  liked 
the  tale  of  Havelok,  the  strapping  Grimsby  fisher  lad,  scullery 
boy  and  king's  son.  But  the  secular  tale  and  satirical  poem  of 
the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  century  appealed  to  a  different 

*  Cf.  also,  its  long  use  in  legal  documents:  "To  substitute  English  for  Latin 
as  the  language  in  which  the  King's  writs  and  patents  and  charters  shall  be 
expressed,  and  the  doings  of  the  law-courts  shall  be  preserved,  requires  a 
statute  of  George  II's  day."     Maitland,  in  Traill's  Social  England,  vol.  i. 

2  Preserved  in  a  Latin  version  only. 


Songs  and  Satires  of  Middle  English      407 

audience  and  are  of  direct  historical  value.  In  Latin  and  in 
English,  the  tyranny  and  vice  and  luxury  of  the  times  are 
strongly  condemned,  the  conduct  of  simoniacal  priest  and 
sensual  friar  is  held  up  to  ridicule;  and,  in  that  way,  the  ground 
was  prepared  for  the  seed  to  be  sown  later  by  the  Lollards. 
Monasticism,  which  had  risen  to  an  extraordinary  height 
during  the  regin  of  Stephen  and  borne  excellent  fruit  in  th'^ 
educational  labours  of  men  like  Gilbert  of  Sempringham,  began 
to  decline  in  the  early  years  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Then 
came  the  friars;  and  their  work  among  the  people,  especially 
in  relieving  physical  suffering,  was  characterised  by  a  self- 
sacrificing  zeal  which  showed  that  they  were  true  sons  of 
Assisi;  but  there  were  some  among  those  who  succeeded  them 
whose  light  lives  and  dark  deeds  are  faithfully  reflected  in  the 
songs  and  satires  of  Middle  English;  and  there  were  others,  in 
higher  stations,  equally  false  to  their  trust,  who  form  the 
subject  of  the  political  verse  coming  into  vogue  in  the  ver- 
nacular. Even  though  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  mutual 
antagonism  between  regulars  and  seculars,  and  between 
members  of  different  orders,  may  be  responsible  for  some  of 
the  scandals  satirised,  and  that  there  was  always  a  lighter 
side  to  the  picture — against  bishop  Golias  and  his  clan  there 
were,  surely,  people  like  Richard  RoUe  of  Hampole — yet 
sufficient  evidence  remains,  apart  from  the  testimony  of 
Matthew  Paris,  of  the  steadily  growing  unpopularity  of  monks 
and  friars,  and  the  equally  steady  growth  of  the  revolt  of 
the  people  against  clerical  influence. 

Social  satire  of  the  nature  indicated  is  seen  in  Middle 
English  in  the  few  examples  of  the  fabliau  still  extant.  The 
short  amusing  tale  in  verse  appealed  greatly  to  the  French- 
man of  the  thirteenth  century;  and,  though  the  few  that  have 
survived  in  English  show  strong  signs  of  their  foreign  origin, 
their  popularity  proved  that  they  were  not  only  accepted  as 
pleasing  to  "the  ears  of  the  groundlings"  but  as  reflecting, 
with  somewhat  malicious,  and  wholly  satiric,  glee,  the  current 
manners  of  monk  and  merchant  and  miller,  friar  and  boy. 
The  Land  of  Cokaygne  tells  of  a  land  of  gluttony  and  idleness, 
a  kitchen-land,  not  exactly  where  it  was  "always  afternoon," 
but  where  the  monk  could  obtain  some  of  the  delights  of  a 
Mohammedan   paradise.     The   very  walls  of   the  monastery 


4oS  Later  Transition  English 

are  built  "  al  of  pasteiis,"  "of  fleis,  of  fisse  and  riche  met,'" 
with  pinnacles  of  "fat  podinges"; 

The  gees  irostid  on  the  spitte 
Flee?  to  that  abbai,  god  hit  wot. 
And  gredith,"    gees  al   hote,   al  hot; 

and  entrance  to  this  land  could  only  be  gained  by  wading 

Seve  jere  in  swineis  dritte  .  .  , 
Al  anon  up  to  the  chynne. 

The  Land  of  Cokaygne  has  relatives  in  many  lands;  it  lacks 
the  deep  seriousness  of  the  Wyclifian  songs  that  came  later, 
and  the  light  satirical  way  in  which  the  subject  is  treated 
would  seem  to  imply  that  a  French  model  had  been  used, 
but  its  colouring  is  local  and  its  purpose  is  evident. 

Dame  Siriz,  an  oriental  tale  showing  traces  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  was  put  into  English  after 
many  wanderings  through  other  languages,  about  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  is  excellently  told  in  a  metre 
varying  between  octosyllabic  couplets  and  the  six-lined  verse 
of  the  Sir  Thopas  type.  Other  renderings  of  the  same  story 
are  contained  in  Gesta  Romanorum  (28),  Disciplina  Clericalis 
(xi)  and  similar  collections  of  tales;  and  the  imperfect  poem 
in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  Clericus  and  Puella,  printed 
by  Wright  and  HalliwelP  may  be  compared  with  it.  A  tale 
of  this  kind  was  certain  of  popularity,  whether  recited  by 
wandering  minstrel  or  committed  to  writing  for  the  pleasure 
of  all  lovers  of  comedy.  To  the  "common  form"  of  an  absent 
and  betrayed  husband,  is  added  the  Indian  device  of  the 
"biche"  with  weeping  eyes  (induced  by  mustard  and  pepper), 
who  has  been  thus  transformed  from  human  shape  because 
of  a  refusal  to  listen  to  the  amorous  solicitations  of  a  "clerc." 
The  device  is  used  by  the  pander.  Dame  Siriz,  who,  for  twenty 
shillings,  promises  another  "clerc"  to  persuade  the  merchant's 
wife  to  yield  to  his  desires. 

There  is,  unfortunately,  very  little  of  the  famous  satirical 
beast  epic  Reynard  the  Fox  that  can  be  claimed  for  England. 
Some  of  the  animals  were  known  to  Odo  of  Cheriton,  the 
fabulist,  who  makes  use  of  stories  of  Reynard  to  point  the 

•  Cry.  *  Reliquiae  Antiquae,  i,  145. 


"The  Turnament  of  Totenham"         409 

moral  of  his  sermons;  and  a  short  fabliau  of  about  the  same 
period  as  those  above  mentioned  is  extant;  but  this  is  about 
all.  In  The  Fox  and  the  Wolf  is  cleverly  related  in  bold  and 
firm  couplets  the  familiar  story  of  the  well  and  the  device  of 
Renauard  for  getting  himself  out  of  it  at  the  expense  of  the 
wolf  Sigrim.  The  teller  of  the  story  in  Middle  English  is 
learned  in  his  craft,  and  the  poem  is  an  admirable  example 
of  comic  satire,  perhaps  the  best  of  its  kind  left  to  us  before 
the  days  of  Chaucer.  Not  only  are  the  two  characters  well 
conceived,  but  they  are  made  the  vehicle,  as  in  the  romance 
of  the  Fleming  Willem,  of  light  satire  on  the  life  of  the  times. 
Before  admitting  the  wolf  to  the  paradise  in  the  bucket  at 
the  bottom  of  the  well,  the  fox  takes  upon  himself  the  duties 
of  a  confessor,  and  the  wolf,  to  gain  absolution,  asks  forgive- 
ness, not  only  for  the  ordinary  sins  of  his  life,  but,  after  a  little 
pressing,  even  repents  him  of  the  resentment  shown  when 
the  confessor  made  free  with  the  penitent's  wife.  Few  things 
show  more  clearly  the  failings  and  vices  current  in  the  Middle 
Ages  than  do  the  various  stories  of  the  deeds  of  Reynard  in 
his  ecclesiastical  disguises;  stories  that  were  carved  in  stone 
and  wood  and  shown  in  painted  glass,  as  well  as  recited  and 
written.  His  smug  cowled  face  looks  out  from  pulpits  and 
leers  at  us  from  under  miserere  seats. 

The  literary  needs  of  those  who  were  familiar  with  the 
"  romances  of  prys"  in  which  deeds  of  chivalry  were  enshrined, 
and  who,  with  the  author  of  Sir  Thopas,  could  enjoy  parodies 
of  them,  were  met  by  such  salutary  tales  as  The  Turnament 
of  Totenham.  A  countryside  wedding,  preceded  by  the  mys- 
teries of  a  medieval  tournament,  is  described  by  Gilbert  Pil- 
kington,  or  by  the  author  whose  work  he  transcribes,  in 
language  that  would  be  well  understood  and  keenly  appreciated 
by  those  of  lower  rank  than  "knight  and  lady  free."  It  is 
an  admirable  burlesque;  rustic  laddies  contend  not  only  for 
Tibbe  the  daughter  of  Rondill  the  refe,  but  for  other  prizes 
thrown  in  by  the  father: 

He  shalle  have  my  gray  mare  [on  which  Tibbe  "was  sett "], 
And  my  spottyd  sowe : 

and,  therefore,  Hawkyn  and  Dawkyn  and  Tomkyn  and  other 
noble  youths  "ffro  Hissiltoun  to  Haknay, "  "leid  on  stifly," 


4IO  Later  Transition  English 

"til  theyre  hors  swett, "  with  much  "clenkyng  of  cart  sadils" 
and  many  "  brokyn  hedis,"  and 

Woo  was  Hawkyn,  woo  was  Herry, 
Woo  was  Tomkyn,  woo  was  Terry 

when  they  sat  down  to  the  marriage  feast  of  the  winner.  The 
Tale  of  Thopas  exercises  its  useful  office  with  a  rapier;  if  The 
Turnament  of  Totenham  performs  its  duty  with  a  cudgel,  the 
res.ult,  so  far  as  the  victim  is  concerned,  is  none  the  less  effective. 

The  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  gave  us  The  Tale  of 
Gamelyn  which  is  dealt  with  elsewhere  as  a  metrical  romance 
and  in  connection  with  the  works  of  Chaucer.  It  forms  an 
admirable  link  between  the  courtly  romance  and  the  poetry 
of  the  outlaws  of  the  greenwood.  A  younger  brother,  de- 
spoiled of  his  share  in  the  inheritance,  is  ill-clothed  and  given 
poor  food  by  his  eldest  brother,  handed  over  to  understrap- 
pers to  be  thrashed  and  otherwise  maltreated.  But,  after  the 
fashion  of  Havelok,  Gamelyn  proves  himself  adept  at  the  stafif 
and  strong  in  the  arm;  and,  after  a  fair  supply  of  adventures, 
with  much  success  and  after  further  tribulation,  he  becomes 
head  of  a  forest  band  of  young  outlaws;  furthermore,  after 
justice  has  been  done  to  his  unnatural  brother,  be  becomes 
king's  officer  in  the  woodland.  It  is  a  "loveless"  tale  of  the 
earlier  Stevenson  kind;  no  courtly  dame  has  part  or  parcel 
therein;  nevertheless,  in  the  form  in  which  we  now  have  it, 
The  Tale  of  Gamelyn  is  quite  excellent,  is,  in  fact,  typically 
English  in  its  sense  of  free  life  and  open  air. 

Of  the  two  collections  of  stories  referred  to  above,  one, 
the  most  famous  of  its  kind,  and  the  source-book  for  many 
later  English  writers,  the  Gesta  Romanorum,  probably  took 
shape  in  England,  in  its  Latin  form,  in  the  period  under  dis- 
cussion. Early  preachers  and  homilists  were  only  too  willing 
to  seize  hold  of  stories  from  every  quarter  in  order  to  "point 
the  moral,"  and  their  collections  have  served  many  ends 
different  from  the  purpose  designed.  If  the  "moral"  at- 
tached to  each  tale,  and  dragged  in,  often,  on  the  most  flimsy 
excuse,  be  ignored,  the  tales  of  the  Gesta  Romanorum  become 
readable,  for  they  are  often  excellently,  even  though  baldly, 
told.  Other  Latin  collections  of  cognate  kind,  the  work  of 
English  compilers,  have  been  referred  to  in  a  preceding  chap- 


*'The  Tale  of  Gamelyn"  4ii 

ter,i  and  all  are  of  importance  in  the  light  they  throw  on  the 
manners  of  the  time.  One,  the  Summa  Praedicantium  of  John 
de  Bromyarde,  a  Dominican  friar,  scholar  of  Oxford  and  an- 
tagonist of  Wyclif,  devotes  a  thousand  pages  to  subjects  likely 
to  be  acceptable  to  congregations,  and  deserves  more  atten- 
tion than  has  hitherto  been  paid  it.  In  the  legendaries  and 
poems  compiled  and  written  b}^  the  monks  for  homiletic 
purposes,  there  are  many  germs  of  the  tale-telling  faculty, 
and  much  folk-lore.  Things  charming  and  grotesque  are 
inextricably  mixed.  In  the  legends  of  the  Childhood  of  Jesus, 
for  instance,  there  is  a  delightful  account  of  the  reverence 
paid  by  the  animal  creation  and  by  inanimate  nature  to  the 
Infant  during  the  journey  to  Egypt;  and  then  the  poem  is 
marred  by  the  addition  of  crude  miraculous  deeds  recorded 
as  afterwards  wrought  by  Him.  Many  of  our  tales  have 
originally  come  from  the  east;  but,  in  spite  of  the  proverb, 
they  have  gathered  much  moss  in  rolling  westward,  and  flints 
from  the  same  quarry  that  have  travelled  a  fairly  direct 
course  look  strangely  different  from  others  that  have  zig- 
zagged hither. 

Of  Middle  English  political  verses,  the  earliest  preserved 
are,  probably,  those  on  the  battle  of  Lewes,  which  was  fought 
in  1264.  The  battle  was  celebrated  by  a  follower  of  the  for- 
tunes of  Simon  de  Montfort,  in  a  poem  which  is  of  considerable 
philological  and  metrical  importance.  The  number  of  French 
words  it  contains  reveals  the  process  of  amalgamation  that 
was  going  on  between  the  two  languages,  and  lets  us  into 
the  workshop  where  the  new  speech  was  being  fashioned. 
The  interest  of  the  poem  is  also  considerable  from  the  evidence 
it  furnishes  that  the  free-spoken  Englishman  was  beginning 
to  make  the  vernacular  the  vehicle  of  satire  against  his  su- 
periors in  the  realm  of  politics,  following  the  example  of  the 
writers  of  the  Latin  satirical  poems  then  current.  The  edu- 
cated part  of  the  race  was  beginning  to  show  signs  of  the  in- 
sular prejudice  against  foreigners  which  is  not  even  absent 
from  it  to-day — ^though  it  could  loyally  support  "foreigners" 
when  they  espoused  the  national  cause — and  it  was,  more 
happily,  showing  signs  of  the  political  genius  which  has  ever 

I  See  Chapter  x,  Map,  Neckam,  etc. 


412  Early  Transition  English 

been  a  quality  of  our  people.  Metrically,  these  political 
lyrics  in  the  vernacular  are  of  importance  because  of  the 
forms  of  verse  experimented  in  and  naturalised.  The  min- 
strel who  sang  or  recited  political  ballads  had  to  appeal  to 
more  critical  audiences  than  had  the  composer  of  sacred 
lyrics;  he  had  to  endeavour  to  impoi-t  into  a  vernacular  in 
transition  something  of  the  easy  flow  of  comic  Latin  verse. 
The  Song  against  the  King  of  Almaigne,^  above  referred  to, 
is  in  mono-rimed  four-lined  stanzas,  followed  by  a  "bob," 
or  shorter  fifth  line,  "maugre  Wyndesore,"  "to  helpe  Wynde- 
sore, "  etc.,  and  a  constant,  mocking,  two-lined  refrain,  with 
a  kind  of  internal  rime : 

Richard,  thah  thou  be  ever  trichard,^ 
trichen  shalt  thou  never  more. 

The  recurrence  of  lines  consisting  of  perfect  anapaests,  ^ 
and  showing  but  little  tendency  towards  alliteration,  indicates 
the  direction  in  which  popular  rimes  were  looking. 
\  In  the  civil  struggles  of  the  barons'  wars,  and  in  the  years 
that  followed,  the  poetry  of  the  people  rose  to  the  surface. 
The  Robin  Hood  ballads,  to  which  we  shall  recur  in  a  later 
volume,  and  a  few  rude  verses  here  and  there,  give  voice,  not 
only  to  the  free,  open  life  of  the  outlaw  in  the  greenwood, 
but,  also,  to  the  cry  of  the  down-trodden  at  the  callous  luxury 
of  the  rich.  The  real  condition  of  the  poor  is  but  rarely  re- 
flected in  the  literature  of  a  nation ;  the  unf ree  in  feudal  times 
were  voiceless,  and  the  labouring  free  of  later  times  have  been 
but  little  better.  Patient  beyond  belief,  the  children  of  the 
soil  do  not,  as  a  rule,  make  literature  of  their  wrongs:  we  can 
only  learn  what  is  at  work  by  conscious  or  unconscious  revela- 
tions in  other  writings.  The  ploughman  in  the  eleventh 
century  dialogue  of  ^Ifric  had  said  with  truth,  "  I  work  hard. 
.  .  .  Be  it  never  so  stark  winter  I  dare  not  linger  at  home 
for  awe  of  my  lord.  ...  I  have  a  boy  driving  the  oxen 
with  a  goad-iron,  who  is  hoarse  with  cold  and  shouting. 
Mighty  hard  work  it  is,  for  I  am  not  free.  "  *     The  "  bitter  cry" 

»  Richard  of  Cornwall,  King  of  the  Romans,  brother  of  Henry  III. 
2  Treacherous. 

3  Sitteth  alle  stille  &  herkneth  to  me  .   .   . 
Sire  Simond  de  Mountfort  hath  swore  bi  ys  chyn,  etc. 
♦  York  Powell's  translation  in  Social  England,  i. 


Songs  of  the  Soil  413 

of  the  oppressed  people  was  echoed  in  the  Old  English  Chroni- 
cle of  the  sad  days  of  Stephen  and,  ignored  by  court  historians 
and  writers  of  romance,  centuries  had  to  elapse  before  it  could 
find   adequate   expression   in   the   alHterative   lines   of   Piers 
Plowman,  and  in  the  preaching  of  the  "mad  priest  of  Kent" 
— one  of  the  earliest  among  Englishmen,   whose  words  are 
known  to  us,  to  declare  for  the  common  and  inalienable  rights 
of  man.     It  is  a  far  cry  from  the  speech  of  the  land  slave  to 
John  Ball,  Jack  Straw,  and  Wat  Tyler,  and  the  intervening 
years  show  but  fragments  of  the  literature  of  revolt,  but  the 
rude  rimes  sent  across  the  country  by  John  Ball  should  no 
more  be  forgotten  in  a  history  of  English  literature  than  the 
rude  beginnings  of  its  prosody,  for  they  contain  the  beginnings 
of  the  literature  of  political  controversy,  the  first  recognisable 
steps  on  the  road  of  political  and  religious  liberty  that  was 
later  to  be  trodden  by  Milton  and  Shelley  and  Cobbett.     In 
the  Song  of  the  Husbandman,  one  of  the  notable  poems  of  the 
alliterative  revival,   which  may  be  dated  towards  the  close 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  in    octaves  and  quatrains    rimed 
alternately  on  two  rimes  with  linked  ending  and  beginning 
lines — a  complicated  measure  handled  with  great  skill — the 
tiller  of  the  soil  complains  that  he  is  robbed  and  picked  "ful 
clene";  that,  because  of  the  green  wax,  he  is  hunted  "ase 
hound  doth  the  hare."     And  the  insolence  of  the  grooms  and 
stable  boys,  the  lackeys  and  servants,  of  the  great  towards 
the  peasantry  is  told  in  the  rude,  coarse  lines  of  A  Song  against 
the  Retinues  of  the  Great  People,  preserved  in  the  same  MS.^ 
The   luthernesse  ^    of  the  ladde. 
The  prudc'^   of  the  page, 

are  the  subject  of  as  keen  invective  as  are  the  deeds  of  the 
consistory  courts,*  where  the  peasants  are  treated  as  dogs. 

When  Edward  I  died,  the  writer  of  an  elegy  on  his  death 
expressed  the  pious  hope  that  "  Edward  of  Carnarvon"  might 

ner  be  worse  man 
Then  is  fader,  ne  lasse  of  myht 

To  holden  is  pore-men  to  ryht 
&  understonde  good  consail. 

It  remained  an  unrealised  hope;  and  the  condition  of  things 

'Had.  2253,  ed.  Wright.  2  Malicious  ill-temper.  »  Conceit. 

*  Political  Songs  of  E^igland,  1839. 


4H  Later  Transition  English 

in  the  times  of  Edward  II  is  reflected  in  the  fugitive  literature 
of  his  reign.  The  curiously  constructed  lines  in  Anglo-Norman 
and  English  On  the  King's  Breaking  his  Confirmation  of  Magna 
Charta,  preserved  in  the  Auchinleck  MS.,  Edinburgh,  and 
the  Song  on  the  Times,  in  lines  made  up  of  Latin,  English  and 
Anglo-Norman  phrases,  tell  the  same  tale  of  ruin  and  cor- 
ruption. Before  the  end  of  the  reign,  Bannockburn  had  been 
fought  and  won,  fought  and  lost;  Scottish  girls  could  sing  of 
the  mourning  of  their  southern  sisters  for  "lemmans  loste"; 
and,  in  place  of  an  elegy  on  the  death  of  a  king  who  "  ber  the 
prys"  "  of  Christendome, "  ^  we  have  a  poem  in  the  Auchinleck 
\A'  MS.  on  The  Evil  Times  of  Edward  II,  which,  in  some  470  lines 
pitilessly  describes  the  misery  of  the  state  and  the  evil  of  the 
church.  It  is  a  sermon  on  the  old  text,  "Ye  cannot  serve 
God  and  Mammon,"  "no  man  may  wel  serve  tweie  lordes  to 
queme, "  and  every  line  bites  in,  as  with  the  acid  of  an  etcher, 
some  fresh  detail  of  current  manners.  As  soon  as  the  young 
priest  can  afford  it,  he  has  a  concubine ;  if  those  in  high  places 
protest,  "he  may  wid  a  litel  silver  stoppen  his  mouth";  the 
doctor  is  the  doctor  of  the  comedies  of  Moliere,  a  pompous 
charlatan,  ready  enough  to  take  silver  for  his  advice,  "  thouh 
he  wite  no  more  than  a  gos  wheither"  the  patient  "wole  live 
or  die";  "the  knights  of  old"  no  longer  go  forth  on  brave,  if 
Quixotic,  quests:  they  are  "liouns  in  halle,  and  hares  in  the 
field, "  and  any  beardless  boy  can  be  dubbed  of  their  company; 
everywhere  are  the  poor  of  the  land  oppressed 

Ac  if  the  king  hit  wiste,  I  trowe  he  wolde  be  wroth, 
Hou  the  pore  beth  i-piled,  and  hu  the  silver  goth; 
Hit  is  so  deskatered  bothe  hider  and  thidere, 
That  halvendel  shal  ben  stole  ar  hit  come  togidere, 

and  acounted; 
An  if  a  pore  man  speke  a  word,  he  shal  be  foule 

afrounted. 

Before  the  fourteenth  century  had  come  to  a  close,  the 
ravages  of  the  Black  Death  had  brought  about  radical  changes 
in  the  relations  of  labourers  to  the  soil  and  had  left  indelible 
impressions  on  life  and  letters.  The  presence  of  a  disease  that, 
at  its  height,  meant  the  death  of  one  out  of  every  two  people 
in  London  and,  in  the  eastern  counties,  of  two  out  of  every 

»  Elegy  on  Edward  I,  before  cited. 


The  Black  Death  4^5 

three,  led  to  a  relaxation  of  the  current  laws  of  life  and  to  the 
Peasants'  Revolt  in  1381.  The  outbreak  of  lawlessness  con- 
sequent upon  the  dislocation  of  life  in  town  and  country,  and 
the  labour  troubles  that  followed,  sent  outlaws  to  the  green- 
wood and  helped  to  build  up  the  legends  of  Robin  Hood. 
Murmurs  of  discontent  grew  in  volume,  and  protests  against 
papal  authority  acquired  fresh  strength  by  the  existence  of 
the  Great  Schism.  The  Lollards  began  their  attacks  on  social 
abuses  and  sought  to  reform  the  church  at  the  same  time. 
The  people  "spoke,"  and,  though  the  "cause"  was  not  "fin- 
ished" for  many  centuries  to  come,  yet  the  end  of  many  of 
the  political  and  religious  ideals  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  in 
sight.  Wyclif,  and  those  associated  with  him,  had  begun  their 
work,  the  poems  that  go  by  the  name  of  Piers  Plowman  had 
been  written  and  the  "commons,"  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the 
word,  were  beginning  their  long  struggle  for  political  freedom. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  Prosody  of  Old  and  Middle  English 

OF  Old  English  poetry,  anterior  to  the  twelfth  century 
and,  perhaps,  in  a  few  cases  of  that  century  itself,  it 
has  been  calculated  that  we  have  nearly  thirty  thou- 
sand lines.  But  all  save  a  very  few  reduce  themselves,  in 
point  of  prosody,  to  an  elastic  but  tolerably  isonomous  form, 
closely  resembling  that  which  is  found  in  the  poetry  of  other 
early  Teutonic  and  Scandinavian  languages.  This  form  may 
be  specified,  either  as  a  pretty  long  line  rigidly  divided  into 
two  halves,  or  as  a  couplet  of  mostly  short  lines  rhythmically 
connected  together  by  a  system  of  alliteration  and  stress. 
Normally,  there  should  be  four  stressed  syllables  in  the  line, 
or  two  in  each  of  the  half  couplets;  and  at  least  three  of  these 
syllables  should  be  alliterated,  beginning  with  the  same  con- 
sonant or  any  vowel,  as  in  this  line  (29)  of  The  Wanderer: 

Wenian  mid  "v\^nnum.     Wat  se  ]>e  cunnaS. 

Around  or  between  the  pillar  or  anchor  stresses,  unstressed 
syllables  are  grouped  in  a  manner  which  has  sometimes  been 
regarded  as  almost  entirely  licentious,  and  sometimes  reduced, 
as  by  Sievers,  to  more  or  less  definite  laws  or  types.  Probably, 
as  usual,  the  truth  lies  between  the  two  extremes. 

To  any  one,  however,  who,  without  previous  knowledge 
of  the  matter,  turns  over  a  fair  number  of  pages  of  Old  English 
verse,  a  singular  phenomenon  will  present  itself.  For  many 
of  these  pages  the  line-lengths,  though  not  rigidly  equated, 
will  present  a  coast-line  not  very  much  more  irregular  than 
that  of  a  page  of  modern  blank  verse.  And  then,  suddenly, 
he  will  come  to  pages  or  passages  where  the  lines  seem  to 
telescope  themselves  out  to  double  their  former  length.  The 
mere  statistical  process  of  enumeration,  and  of  subsequent 

416 


Old  English  Verse  417 

digestion  into  classes  of  more  or  less  resembling  type,  finds 
no  difficulty  in  this,  and  merely  regards  it  as  an  instance  of 
"stretched"  or  "swollen"  verses,  with  three  or  four  accents 
in  each  half  instead  of  two.  Curiosity  of  a  different  kind  may, 
perhaps,  pine  for  a  little  explanation  of  a  more  real  nature — 
may  wish  to  know  whether  this  lengthening  was  parallel,  say, 
to  Tennyson's  at  the  close  of  The  Lotos  Eaters — a  definitely 
concerted  thing — or  whether  it  was  a  mere  haphazard  licence. 
But  there  are  no  means  of  satisfying  this  curiosity  except  by 
conjecture.  Further,  our  means  of  deciding  whether,  as  is 
usually  said,  the  stressed  syllables  were  bound  to  be  "long" 
beforehand  or  not,  are  very  scanty.  It  seems  admitted  that 
more  than  one  short  syllable  may  do  the  duty  of  one  long; 
and  this  is  of  the  highest  importance.  What,  however,  is 
certain  is  that,  in  spite  of  this  great  variation  of  length,  and 
in  spite  of  considerable  differences,  not  merely  in  syllabic 
volume,  between  the  members  of  the  "stretched"  and  un- 
stretched  groups  respectively,  there  is  a  certain  community 
of  rhythmical  tone,  sometimes  full,  sometimes  muffled,  which 
not  only  distinguishes  the  whole  body  of  this  ancient  poetry 
but  is  distinguishable,  with  some  alteration,  in  the  later  re- 
vived alliterative  verse  of  Middle  EngHsh  up  to  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  order  to  detect  and  check  this, 
the  student  should  take  the  Corpus  Poeticum  of  Old  English 
and  read  pages  of  different  poems  steadily,  letting  his  voice 
accommodate  itself  to  the  rhythm  which  will  certainly  emerge 
if  he  has  any  ear.  Different  ears  will,  perhaps,  standardise 
this  rhythm  differently,  and  it  certainly  admits  of  very  wide 
variation  and  substitution.  The  simplest  and  most  normal 
formula — not  necessarily  the  one  which  mere  statistics  will 
show  to  be  commonest  as  such,  but  that  which,  in  itself,  or 
in  slight  variations  from  it,  predominates — appears  to  the 
present  writer  to   be 

tum-ti-ti )  ^        ^-  I  ^        ,  •  .         J.- 
.  \  tum-ti     tum-ti  tum-ti. 
ti-tum-ti ) 

These  are  almost  the  lowest  terms  of  a  fully  resonant  line. 
They  are  sometimes  further  truncated;  they  are  often  en- 
larged by  the  addition  of  unstressed  syllables;  but  they  are 
never  far  off  except  in  the  obvious  and  admitted  "  magnums." 
Long  or  short,  these  lines,  in  all  but  an  infinitesimal  pro- 


VOL.  I. — 2  7 


4i8       Prosody  of  Old  and  Middle  English 

portion  of  the  total,  are  arranged  in  mere  consecution.  A 
kind  of  paragraph  arrangement — which  is,  in  fact,  a  necessity 
— may  be  often  noticed;  but  there  are,  save  in  one  famous 
exception,  no  "stanzas."  This  exception  is  the  extremely 
interesting  and,  to  all  appearance,  extremely  early  poem 
Deor.  Here,  things  which  are  undoubtedly  like  stanzas 
(though  the  number  of  lines  in  them  is  variable)  are  formed  by 
a   refrain : 

J^aes  ofereode,  Jjisses  swa  maej.^ 

With  some  rashness,  it  has  been  assumed  that  this  semi-lyrical 
arrangement  was  the  earlier,  and  that  it  broke  down  into  the 
continuous  form.  It  may  be  so;  but,  in  Old  English,  at  any 
rate,  we  have  no  evidence  to  show  it. 

Further,  in  the  main  range  of  this  poetry,  though  not  to 
such  an  exclusive  extent,  rime  is  absent.  Attempts  have  been 
made  to  discover  it  in  some  of  the  mainly  rimeless  poems  of 
later  dates;  but  the  instances  adduced  are  probably  acciden- 
tal. In  fact,  the  majority  of  them,  alleged  chiefly  by  German 
critics,  are  not  properly  rimes  at  all,  and  are  often  mere 
similarities  of  inflection.  The  real  exceptions  are  (i)  the 
famous  piece  in  the  Exeter  Book  called,  significantly.  The 
Riming  Poem,  which  exhibits  a  system,  probably  imitated 
from  the  Norse,  of  internal,  and  sometimes  frequently  repeated, 
consonance  at  the  ends  of  lines  and  half-lines;  and  (2)  a  few 
fragments,  especially  the  inset  in  the  Chronicle  about  the  im- 
prisonment and  death  of  the  "guiltless  aetheling"  Alfred. 
They  are  exceptions  which  eminently  prove  the  rule.  A  quest 
for  assonance  had  also  been  made,  and  a  few  instances  of 
something  like  it  have  been  pointed  out.  But  they  are  very 
few.  Assonance,  in  fact,  has  never  held  any  important  place 
in  English  prosody;  and,  where  it  exists  in  unsophisticated 
times  and  instances,  it  is  always,  most  probably,  the  result 
either  of  inattention  or  of  an  attempt  to  rime.  On  the  whole, 
the  body  of  Old  English  verse,  as  we  have  it,  is  one  of  the  most 
homogeneous  to  be  found  in  any  literature.  Alliteration, 
accent  and  strict  separation  of  lines  or  half-lines  for  its  positive 
laws;  rimelessness  for  its  negative:  these  nearly  sum  up  its 
commandments,  and  its  result  is  dominated  by  an  irregular 

'See  ante,  p.  40. 


The  Transition  4^9 

quasi-trochaic  rhythm  which  will  retreat,  but  always  comes 
back  again. 

When,  after  the  lapse  of  some  two  centuries,  which  fur- 
nish only  scraps  of  verse,  we  meet,  at,  or  before,  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century,  with  a  fresh  crop  of  English  poetry,  the 
results  of  prosodic  scrutiny  are  strikingly  different.  Instead 
of  the  just  summarised  regularity — not  in  the  least  cast-iron, 
but  playing  freely  round  two  or  three  recognised  principles, 
which  are  never  absolutely  deserted,  and  attempting  nothing 
beyond  their  range — we  find  what  may,  at  first,  look  like 
chaos;  what  has  sometimes  been  taken  for  the  same  dis- 
pensation a  little  obsolescent  and  broken  down,  but,  when 
examined  fully  and  fairly,  is  seen  to  be  a  true  period  of  trans- 
ition. The  old  order  finds  itself  in  face  of  a  new,  which  does 
not  by  any  means  merely  replace  it  or  destroy  it;  but,  after 
an  inevitable  stage  of  confusion,  blends  with  it  and  produces 
something  different  from  either,  something  destined  to  be 
permanent  as  far  as  we  can  yet  see.  In  all  the  pieces  usually 
dated  a  little  before  or  a  little  after  1200 — the  fragments  of 
St.  Godric,  Paternoster,  The  Moral  Ode  and  others,  as  well  as 
the  two  long  compositions  of  Layamon  and  Orm — this  process 
and  its  results  are  obser\^able.  The  new  agency  is  the  syl- 
labic prosody  (accentual,  also,  in  general  character,  but 
strictly  syllabic)  of  French  and  of  contemporary  Latin,  with 
its  almost  invariable  accompaniment  of  rime,  and  its  tendency, 
invariable  also  in  French,  though  by  no  means  so  in  Latin,  to 
iambic  rh3rthm.  It  must  be  sufficient  here  to  examine  the 
working  out  of  this  clash  in  the  two  long  poems  just  referred 
to,  the  Ormidiiin  and  the  Brut,  with  slighter  remarks  on  the 
others.  In  both  poems  it  is  possible  to  trace  the  older  prin- 
ciple of  a  rimeless  line  of  more  or  less  length,  divided  sharply 
in  the  middle,  or  a  rimeless  couplet  of  two  halves,  in  which, 
though  not  invariably,  there  is  a  certain  tendency  to  shorten 
the  second.  But  the  two  writers  have  been  affected  by  the 
opposite  and  newer  system  in  ways  curiously  dift'erent,  but 
quite  intelligible  as  results  of  the  clash.  Orm  has  unflinch- 
ingly kept  to  the  old  principle  of  rimelessness ;  but  he  has  as 
unflinchingly  adopted  the  new  principles  of  uniformity  in 
syllabic  volume  and  of  regular  iambic  metrical  beat.     His 


420      Prosody  of  Old  and  Middle  English 

lines  are  invariably  of  fifteen  syllables,  or  his  couplets  of 
eight  and  seven.  That  he  achieves — as  any  example,  however 
selected,  must  show — nothing  but  the  most  exasperating 
and  wooden  monotony,  does  not  matter  to  him,  and  it  ought 
not  to  matter  to  us.  He  has  sacrificed  everything  to  regu- 
larity in  number  and  cadence,  and  he  has  achieved  this. 

Layamon's  result,  if  not  more  actually  important,  is  much 
more  complicated,  much  more  interesting,  with  much  more 
future  in  it ;  but,  for  these  very  reasons,  it  is  much  less  easy  to 
summarise.  In  fact,  to  summarise  it  in  uncontroversial  terms 
is  very  nearly  impossible.  At  first  sight,  if  we  can  suppose 
an  eye  familiar  with  Old  English  poetry  and  not  familiar  at 
all  with  Middle  English,  it  may  seem  to  present  no  great 
difference  from  the  former ;  and  there  are  still  some  who  think 
that  it  does  not  present  any  that  is  vital.  But,  when  it  is 
examined  a  little  more  carefully,  differences  the  most  vital,  if 
as  yet  sometimes  not  more  than  embryonically  vital,  emerge. 
Regarded  as  alliterative  verse  of  the  old  pattern,  it  can  only 
be  called  very  bad  verse — verse  which  turns  the  already 
abundant  liberties  of  the  original  into  mere  chaotic  licence, 
for  the  most  part,  and  which  very  seldom  conforms  at  all 
successfully.  But,  in  addition  to  this,  it  succumbs,  constantly 
though  irregularly,  to  the  temptation  which,  except  in  late 
and  few  instances,  the  old  verse  had  rigidly  resisted,  and  which 
Orm  was  resisting  absolutely — the  temptation  of  rime.  And 
this  rime  seems  to  be  forcing  on  it  a  new  regularisation,  that 
of  equal-halved  distichs  rimed  together  in  the  exact  fashion 
of  the  French  octosyllabic  couplet. 

When  we  turn  to  the  other  and  smaller  poems  of  the 
period  we  find  this  process  of  "slowly  quickening  into  other 
forms"  even  more  importantly  and  interestingly  exhibited. 
The  Paternoster  is  wholly  in  more  or  less  regular  rimed  couplets 
of  the  kind  just  noted.  In  The  Moral  Ode,  the  fifteen-syllabled 
line  of  Orm,  which,  by  the  frequency  of  feminine  endings, 
already  promises  the  reduction  to  fourteen,  comes  even  nearer 
to  the  ballad  metre  of  eight  and  six,  and  exhibits  a  still  more 
valuable  characteristic  in  its  tendency  towards  maintaining 
the  old  syllabic  freedom  and  substitution  of  trisyllabic  feet  for 
the  strict  dissyllables  of  Ormulum.  Further,  this  heritage  of  Old 
English  manifests  itself  in  the  octosyllabic  couplet;  and,  in  the 


Foreign  Influence  421 

version  of  Genesis  and  Exodus,  which  is  assigned  to  about  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  anticipates  exactly  the  Chris- 
tabel  metre  which  Coleridge  thought  he  invented  more  than 
five  hundred  years  later.  And,  before  very  long,  though  at  dates 
impossible  to  indicate  with  precision,  owing  to  the  uncertainty 
of  the  chronology  of  the  documents,  other  approximations  of 
the  old  staple  line  or  couplet  to  the  metres  of  French  and  Latin 
(especially  the  rime  couee  or  combination  of  two  eights  and 
a  six  doubled)  make  their  appearance.  These  transforma- 
tions, however,  as  the  liberty  of  their  forms  shows,  and  as 
may  be  specially  studied  with  greatest  ease  in  the  various 
adaptations  of  the  octosyllabic  couplet,  are  neither  mere 
aimless  haphazard  experiments,  nor  mere  slavish  following 
of  French  and  Latin  forms  previously  existing  and  held  up 
as  patterns.  They  may  be  much  more  reasonably  regarded 
as  attempts  to  adjust  these  latter  to  the  old  couplet  with  its 
middle  division,  and  its  liberty  of  equality  or  inequality  of 
syllabic  length  in  the  halves;  though,  in  all  cases,  the  special 
rhythm  of  the  older  line  or  stave  has  become  faint  in  the  ear, 
and  the  new  metrical  swing  prevails.  An  equal  division  of 
the  halves  gives  a  distich  w^hich,  for  some  time,  hesitates  be- 
tween eight  and  six  syllables,  the  latter  having  the  additional 
assistance  of  the  French  alexandrine  as  pattern.  But  it 
proves  less  suitable  for  English  verse  than  the  longer  form, 
and  it  is  dropped  or  very  rarely  used.  An  unequal  division 
— from  the  first  most  popular — into  eight  and  seven  or  eight 
and  six,  gives  the  long  line  of  Robert  of  Gloucester — some- 
times called,  for  convenience,  a  "fourteener"  or,  by  Warton 
and  others,  but  most  improperly,  a  "long  alexandrine." 
This,  when  itself  "disclosed"  in  "golden  couplets,"  becomes 
at  once  the  famous  "common"  or  ballad  measure,  the  most 
distinctly  popular  metre  for  seven  hundred  years  past,  and, 
at  certain  times,  one  yielding  the  most  exquisite  harmony 
possible,  though  very  easily  degraded  and  reduced  to  sing-song. 
In  the  course,  moreover,  of  the  give  and  take  of  this  com- 
merce between  material  and  mould,  the  beginnings  of  the 
great  decasyllabic,  five-foot,  or  five-stress  line  emerge  \\ath 
a  frequency  which  has,  for  the  most  part,  been  inadequately 
noted ;  as  well  as,  more  rarely,  the  alexandrine  itself.  In  fact, 
it  furnishes  the  poet,  by  luck  or  design,  with  every  possible 


422      Prosody  of  Old  and  Middle  English 

line  from  four,  or  even  fewer,  syllables  to  fourteen;  while  his 
examples  in  Latin  and  French  in  turn  furnish  almost  endless 
suggestions  of  stanza-combination. 

In  one  all-important  particular,  however,  the  foreign  in- 
fluence exercised — by  French  altogether  and,  by  Latin,  in  the 
greatest  part  by  far  of  its  recent  and  accentual  verse  writing — 
in  the  direction  of  strict  syllabic  uniformity,  is  not,  indeed, 
universally,  but  to  a  very  large  extent,  and  stubbornly,  re- 
sisted. The  rimelessness  of  Old  English  might  be  given  up 
with  pleasure;  its  curious  non-metrical,  or  hardly  more  than 
half -metrical,  cadences  might  be  willingly  exchanged  for  more 
definite  harmony;  the  chains  of  its  forced  alliteration  might 
be  attenuated  to  an  agreeable  carcanet  worn  now  and  then 
for  ornament;  and  its  extreme  length-licence  might  be  cur- 
tailed and  regularised.  But,  in  one  point  which  had  made  for 
this  latter,  English  refused  to  surrender;  and  that  was  the 
admission  of  trisyllabic  feet,  as  some  phrase  it,  or,  as  some 
prefer  to  describe  the  process,  the  admission  of  extra  unstressed 
syllables.  The  question  was,  indeed,  not  settled;  as  a  question 
it,  no  doubt,  never  arose;  and,  when  such  problems  came  to 
be  considered,  there  was  a  dangerous  tendency  from  late  in  the 
sixteenth  century  till  later  in  the  eighteenth  to  answer  them 
in  the  wrong  way.  But  practice  was  irreconcilable.  Of  the 
octosyllabic  couplet  there  were,  almost  from  the  first,  two 
distinct  forms,  the  strict  and  the  elastic;  in  nearly  all  other 
metres  the  licence  is  practically  assumed.  By  1300,  or  a  little 
later,  say  1325 — ^to  admit  the  latest  possible  dates  for  the 
Harleian  lyrics  and  the  bulk  of  the  early  romances — all  the 
constitutive  principles  of  modern  English  prosod)''  are  in 
operation,  and  are  turning  out  work,  rougher  or  smoother,  but 
unmistakable. 

One  curious  postscript  has  to  be  made  to  these  few  general 
remarks.  During  the  period  just  referred  to — from  Layamon, 
that  is  to  say,  to  the  appearance  of  William  of  Palerne  and 
other  things,  at  a  time  probably  nearer  to  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  than  to  its  beginning — attempts  at  the  old 
alliterative  metre  are  absolutely  wanting.  It  is  not  unusual 
to  meet  with  assumptions  that,  though  wanting,  they  must 
have  existed,  at  any  rate  in  popular  literature;  and  to  these 
assumptions,   as  to  all  such,   no  reasonable  answer  can  be 


Main  Current  of  English  Verse  4^3 

made,  except  that  it  may  have  been  so.  So  far,  however, 
no  trace  of  any  such  verse  in  the  period  referred  to  has  been 
discovered;  nor  any  reference  to  such;  nor  any  evidence,  direct 
or  indirect,  that  it  existed.  About  the  end  of  the  period  it 
reappears:  sometimes  simple  of  itself,  with  a  cadence  altered, 
indeed,  but  not  out  of  all  likeness,  after  the  fashion  that  was 
to  produce  its  capital  example  in  The  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman; 
sometimes  in  a  very  remarkable  blend  with  rime,  and  with 
metrical  and  stanza  arrangement,  after  the  fashion  of  which 
the  most  notable  instances,  in  less  and  more  regular  kind,  are 
Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knight  and  Pearl.  But  this  revival 
or  reappearance  has  no  effect  on  the  main  current  of  Eng- 
lish verse;  which  continues  to  be  distinctly  metrical,  to  be, 
in  effect  universally,  rimed  and  to  use  alliteration  only  for 
a  separable  and  casual  ornament,  not  as  a  constituent  and 
property. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

Changes   in    the    Language  to  the  Days 

of  Chaucer 

I.    Continuity  of  the  English  Language 

THE  three  Germanic  peoples — the  Jutes  from  Jutland,  the 
Angles  from  Schleswig  and  the  Saxons  from  Holstein — 
who,  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  made  themselves 
masters  of  the  greater  part  of  south  Britain,  spoke  dialects  so 
nearly  allied  that  they  can  have  had  no  great  difficulty  in 
understanding  each  other's  speech.  It  does  not  appear, 
however,  that,  in  their  original  seats,  they  had  any  general 
name  for  their  common  race  or  their  common  language.  The 
sense  of  their  unity,  with  the  consequent  need  for  a  general 
designation  for  themselves,  would,  naturally,  be  the  product 
of  the  time  when  they  found  themselves  settled  among  a 
population  speaking  an  alien  and  unintelligible  tongue.  In 
fact,  it  was  probably  not  by  themselves,  but  by  other  nations, 
that  the  Jutes,  Angles  and  Saxons  of  Britain  were  first  re- 
garded as  forming  an  ethnic  whole;  just  as  in  earlier  times 
the  larger  kindred  of  which  they  were  part  had  received  the 
name  of  Germans  from  the  Celts.  The  Britons  applied  to  all 
the  Germanic  invaders  of  their  country  the  name  of  Saxons, 
because,  in  the  days  of  Roman  rule,  that  nation  had  been  the 
most  conspicuous  among  those  who  ravaged  the  coasts  of 
Britain;  and,  as  is  well  known,  the  Celtic-speaking  inhabitants 
of  the  British  islands  still  continue  to  call  the  English  people 
and  its  language  "Saxon."  On  the  Continent,  the  Germanic 
conquerors  of  Britain  seem,  for  a  long  time,  to  have  been 
called  indiscriminately  sometimes  Saxons,  after  the  Celtic 
practice,   and  sometimes  Angles,  the  latter  being  the  name 

424 


The  Language  of  the  Angles  425 

of  the  people  which  had  the  largest  extent  of  territory.  At 
the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  pope  Gregory  I  uses  only  the 
name  Angli.  This  is  a  somewhat  remarkable  fact,  because 
the  missionaries  sent  by  Gregory  laboured  in  the  Jutish 
kingdom  of  Kent,  which,  at  that  time,  was  paramount  over 
all  the  country  south  of  the  Humber.  Possibly,  the  explana- 
tion of  Gregory's  choice  of  this  name  may  be  found  in  the 
famous  story  according  to  which  his  zeal  for  the  conversion 
of  the  pagans  of  Britain  was  first  awakened  by  his  admiration 
of  the  beauty  of  the  boy  slaves  from  the  Anglian  kingdom 
of  Deira.  On  the  other  hand,  about  a.d.  660,  pope  Vitalian, 
writing  to  an  Angle  king,  Oswiu  of  Northumbria,  addresses 
him  as  rex  Saxonum. 

The  Roman  missionaries  naturally  followed  Gregory's 
practice ;  and  it  was  probably  from  the  official  language  of  the 
church  that  the  Jutes  and  Saxons  learned  to  regard  themselves 
as  part  of  the  "Angle  kindred"  (Angolcynn,  in  Latin  gens 
Anglorum).  The  political  ascendency  of  the  Angle  kingdoms, 
which  began  in  the  seventh  century,  and  continued  until  the 
time  of  the  Danish  invasions,  doubtless  contributed  to  ensure 
the  adoption  of  this  general  name.  In  the  early  years  of  the 
eighth  century,  Bede  sometimes  speaks  of  Angli  sive  Saxones, 
thus  treating  the  two  appellations  as  equivalent.  But,  with 
this  sole  exception,  his  name  for  the  whole  people  is  always 
Angli  or  gens  Anglorum,  and  he  calls  their  language  sermo 
Anglicus,  even  when  the  special  reference  is  to  the  dialect 
in  which  the  Kentish  laws  were  written.  When  he  does 
speak  of  lingua  Saxonica,  the  context,  in.  every  instance, 
shows  that  he  means  the  language  of  the  East  or  West  Saxons. 
It  is  true  that  Bede  was  an  Angle  by  birth,  and  this  fact 
might  seem  to  detract  from  the  significance  of  his  use  of  the 
name.  But,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  the  West  Saxon  king 
Alfred,  whose  works  are  written  in  his  native  dialect,  never 
uses  any  other  name  for  his  own  language  but  Englisc — the 
language  of  the  Angles.  It  is  in  the  great  king's  writings  that 
we  find  the  earliest  vernacular  examples  of  the  name  which 
our  language  has  ever  since  continued  to  bear. 

In  a  certain  sense  it  may  be  said  that  this  name,  as  applied 
to  the  language  of  the  south  of  England,  became  more  and 
more  strictly  appropriate  as  time  went  on.     For  the  history 


426  Changes  in  the  Language 

of  southern  English,  or  of  the  language  of  English  literature, 
is,  to  a  considerable  extent,  concerned  with  the  spread  of 
Anglian  forms  of  words  and  the  disappearance  of  forms  that 
were  specifically  Saxon.  Moreover,  several  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  the  processes  of  change  that  transformed  the  English 
of  Alfred  into  the  English  of  Chaucer — the  loss  of  inflections 
and  grammatical  gender,  and  the  adoption  of  Danish  words — 
— began  in  the  Anglian  regions  of  the  north,  and  gradually 
extended  themselves  southward.  Leaving  out  of  account 
the  changes  that  were  due  to  French  influences,  we  might 
almost  sum  up  the  history  of  the  language  during  five  centuries 
in  the  formula  that  it  became  more  and  more  "English"  and 
less  and  less  "Saxon." 

It  will  be  convenient  at  this  point  to  give  some  account 
of  the  history  of  the  nomenclature  of  the  various  stages  in  the 
development  of  the  English  language.  When,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  remains  of  vernacular  literature  earlier  than  the 
Norman  conquest  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  scholars, 
Englishmen  naturally  found  it  inconvenient  to  apply  the  name 
of  "English"  to  what  to  them  was,  practically,  a  foreign 
language,  requiring  not  less  study  to  understand  than  the 
Flemish  of  their  own  day.  It  became  customary,  therefore, 
to  speak  of  this  language  as  "Saxon."  As  the  few  pre-Con- 
quest texts  then  known  were  written  in  the  south,  this  designa- 
tion may  be  said  to  have  been  accurately  descriptive.  It 
was  so,  however,  merely  by  accident,  for  those  who  employed 
it  were  accustomed  to  use  the  term  "  Saxons"  as  a  general  name 
for  the  Germanic  inhabitants  of  England  before  the  Norman 
conquest.  The  popular  view  was  that  the  "English"  people 
and  the  "English"  language  came  into  being  as  the  result 
of  the  fusion  of  "  Saxons  "  and  Normans.  Traces  of  this  misuse 
of  names,  indeed,  are  to  be  found  in  various  forms  of  expression 
that  are  still  current.  Although  the  double  misnomer  of  "  the 
Saxon  heptarchy ' '  no  longer  appears  in  our  school  histories 
modern  writers  continue  to  speak  of  "  the  Saxon  elements  in 
the  English  vocabulary,"  and  to  misapply  the  epithet  "  Saxon" 
to  the  architecture  of  the  parts  of  the  country  inhabited  by 
the  Angles. 

The  term  "Saxon,"  besides  being  historically  incorrect 
as   a  designation   for  the  whole  early  Germanic   population 


"Anglo-Saxon"  427 

of  Britain,  was  inconveniently  ambiguous,  because  it  survived 
as  the  proper  appellation  of  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Germany.  In  the  last  years  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  Camden 
revived  the  use  of  the  old  name  Anglosaxones,  and,  probably 
for  the  first  time,  used  lingua  Anglosaxonica  for  the  language 
of  England  before  the  Norman  conquest.  He  explains  that 
Anglosaxones  means  the  Saxons  of  England,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  those  of  the  Continent;  and,  in  his  English  Remains, 
he  accordingly  renders  it  by  "English  Saxons."  Throughout 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  even  later,  "English  Saxon" 
continued  to  be  the  name  ordinarily  applied  by  philologists 
to  the  language  of  king  Alfred,  but,  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
this  gave  place  to  "Anglo-Saxon." 

Camden's  explanation  of  the  compound  name  was,  there 
can  be  little  doubt,  historically  correct.  In  its  early  use,  it 
was  applied  to  distinguish  those  Saxons  who  were  considered 
part  of  the  "  Angolcynn,"  and  whose  language  was  called  "  Eng- 
lish," from  the  "Old  Saxons,"  who  remained  in  Germany; 
and  the  structure  of  the  native  form  Angulseaxe  shows  that 
the  first  element  was  intended  as  a  descriptive  prefix.  It  was, 
however,  natural  that  the  compound  should  be  interpreted 
as  meaning  "Angle  and  Saxon,"  and,  apparently,  it  was  taken 
in  this  sense  already  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
by  George  Hickes,  who  also  applied  the  analogous  name 
"Dano-Saxon"  to  the  Old  Northumbrian  dialect,  under  the 
mistaken  notion  that  its  peculiar  features  were  the  result  of 
Scandinavian  admixture.  As  thus  misunderstood,  the  term 
"Anglo-Saxon"  was  accepted  as  supplying  the  need  for  a 
general  name  applicable  to  the  Anglian  and  Saxon  dialects  in 
their  fully  inflected  stage.  In  this  comprehensive  sense  it 
continues  to  be  extensively  used.  The  proposal  of  some 
scholars  to  restrict  its  application,  on  grounds  of  historical 
propriety  to  the  Saxon  dialect  failed  to  gain  acceptance, 
because  what  was  wanted  was  an  inclusive  name  for  the 
early  language  of  England,  as  the  object  of  a  well-defined 
branch  of  linguistic  study.  When  professorships  of  "Anglo- 
Saxon"  had  been  founded  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  it  was 
hardly  possible  to  narrow  the  meaning  of  the  name  to  a  part 
of  the  subject  which  the  professors  were  appointed  to  teach. 

As  a  popular  designation,  the  name  "Anglo-Saxon"  has 


428  Changes  in  the  Language 

the  merits  of  definiteness  and  intelligibility,  which  may  possibly 
long  preserve  it  in  use.  It  has,  however,  the  great  disadvan- 
tage of  concealing  the  important  fact  that  the  history  of  our 
language  from  the  earliest  days  to  the  present  time  has  been 
one  of  continuous  development.  When  this  fact  became 
evident  through  the  attention  bestowed  by  scholars  on  the 
language  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  inconvenience  of  the 
traditional  nomenclature  could  not  escape  recognition.  The 
language  of  this  period  was  too  different  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
of  the  grammars  to  be  conveniently  called  by  the  same  name, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  could  hardly  be  called  English 
so  long  as  "English"  was  understood  to  mean  a  language 
which  the  unlearned  reader  could  at  once  perceive  to  be 
substantially  identical  with  his  own.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  meet  the  difficulty  by  the  invention  of  the  compound 
"Semi-Saxon,"  to  denote  the  transitional  stage  between 
"Anglo-Saxon"  and  "English,"  but  this  name  was  so  ob- 
viously infelicitous  that  its  introduction  helped  to  procure 
acceptance  for  a  nomenclature  which  recognised  that  the  lan- 
guage of  Caedmon  was  no  less  "  English"  than  that  of  Chaucer. 
The  great  German  philologist  Jacob  Grimm  had  introduced 
the  practice  of  dividing  the  history  of  a  language  into  three 
periods,  designated  by  the  prefixes  "Old,"  "Middle"  and 
"  New"  or  "  Modern";  and,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  many  scholars  in  England  adopted  "Old  English" 
as  the  name  for  that  stage  of  the  language  which  had,  till  then, 
been  known  as  Anglo-Saxon.  The  change  found  much  oppo- 
sition, on  the  not  wholly  unreasonable  ground  that  "  Old 
English"  was  popularly  applied  to  any  form  of  English  that 
was  characterised  by  abundance  of  obsolete  words  and  by 
antiquated  spelling,  so  that  the  novel  use  could  not  but  lead 
to  frequent  misunderstanding.  The  advantages  of  the  new 
nomenclature  for  purposes  of  historical  treatment  are,  however, 
so  considerable  that  it  has  now  come  into  general  use,  although 
a  few  philologists,  both  in  England  and  Germany,  still  decline 
to  adopt  it. 

The  main  reason  for  restoring  to  the  language  of  Caedmon 
and  Alfred  its  historical  name  of  "English,"  is  to  emphasise 
the  truth  that  there  was  no  substitution  of  one  language  for 
another  in  England  after  the  Norman  conquest,  but  only  a 


I 


Periods  of  English  429 

modification  of  the  original  language  by  gradual  changes  in 
pronunciation  and  grammar,  by  the  accession  of  new  words 
and  the  obsolescence  of  old  ones.  The  change  of  nomenclature 
will  be  a  mere  useless  pedantry  if  we  allow  ourselves  to  imagine 
that  there  was  any  definite  date  at  which  people  ceased  to 
speak  "Old  English"  and  began  to  speak  "Middle  English," 
or  even  that  there  ever  was  a  time  when  the  English  of  the  older 
generation  and  that  of  the  younger  generation  differed  widely 
from  each  other.  Nevertheless,  owing  partly  to  the  fact 
that  the  twelfth  century  was  an  age  of  exceptionally  rapid 
linguistic  change,  and  partly  to  other  causes  hereafter  to  be  ex- 
plained, it  is  quite  true  that,  while  the  literary  remains  of 
the  first  half  of  the  century  exhibit  a  form  of  the  language 
not  strikingly  different  from  that  of  preceding  centuries, 
those  of  the  latter  half  present  such  an  amount  of  novelty 
in  spelling  and  grammatical  features  as  to  make  the  most 
superficial  observation  sufficient  to  show  that  a  new  period 
has  begun.  The  date  of  a.d.  1150,  as  the  approximate  point  of 
demarcation  between  the  Old  and  Middle  periods  of  English, 
is,  therefore,  less  arbitrary  than  chronological  boundaries  in 
the  history  of  a  language  usually  are;  though,  if  we  possessed 
full  information  respecting  the  spoken  English  of  the  twelfth 
century,  we  should  have  to  be  content  with  a  much  less  precise 
determination.  While  the  Middle  English  period  has  thus 
a  definite  beginning,  it  has  no  definite  ending.  It  is,  however, 
convenient  to  regard  it  as  terminating  about  a.d.  1500,  be- 
cause the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  coincides  pretty  closely 
with  the  victory  of  the  printing-press  over  the  scriptorium ; 
and  many  of  the  distinctive  features  of  literary  Modern  English 
would  never  have  been  developed  if  printing  had  not  been 
invented. 

2.     Changes  in  Grammar 

The  most  striking  characteristic  of  Old  English,  as  com- 
pared with  later  stages  of  the  language,  is  that  it  retained 
without  essential  change  the  inflectional  system  which  it 
possessed  at  the  beginning  of  its  history.  So  far  as  regards 
the  verbs,  this  system  was  very  imperfect  in  comparison 
with  that  of  Greek,  or  even  of  Latin.  There  was  no  inflected 
passive,  the  need  of  which  was  supplied  by  the  use  of  auxiliaries ; 


430 


Changes  in  the  Language 


and  there  were  only  t\vo  inflected  tenses:  the  present,  which 
often  had  to  serve  for  a  future,  and  the  past.  The  use  of 
auxiharies  for  forming  compound  tenses  was  comparatively- 
rare.  The  three  persons  of  the  plural  had  only  one  form, 
which,  prehistorically,  had  been  that  of  the  third  person; 
and,  in  the  past  tense,  the  first  and  third  person  singular  were 
alike.  On  the  other  hand,  the  system  of  declension  was  nearly 
as  elaborate  as  in  any  of  the  languages  of  the  Indogermanic 
family.  Substantives  had  four  cases:  nominative,  accusative, 
genitive  and  dative.  The  adjective  had  two  sets  of  inflections 
for  gender,  number  and  case — the  one  used  when  the  substan- 
tive was  "definite"  (as  when  preceded  by  the  article  or  some 
equivalent),  and  the  other  when  it  was  "indefinite."  So  far 
as  this  description  goes,  it  might  appear  that  the  Old  English 
machinery  for  expressing  the  grammatical  relations  of  substan- 
tives, adjectives  and  pronouns  was  as  adequate  for  its  purpose 
as  even  that  of  Greek.  But,  owing  to  the  effect  of  prehistoric 
changes  of  pronunciation,  which  had  assimilated  many  ter- 
minations that  were  originally  distinct,  the  Old  English 
declension  of  these  parts  of  speech  was,  in  fact,  full  of  incon- 
venient ambiguities.  This  will  be  evident  if  we  place  side 
by  side  the  paradigms  of  the  word  guma,  a  man,  in  Gothic 
(which,  in  this  instance,  agrees  very  nearly  with  primitive 
Germanic)  and  in  Old  English. 


Sing.  Nom. 

Accus. 

Gen. 

Dative 
Plur.  Nom. 

Accus. 

Gen. 

Dative 


Gothic. 

guma 

guman 

gumins 

gumin 

gumans 

gumans 

gumane 

gumam 


Old  English. 
guma 
guman 
guman 
guman 
guman 
guman 
gumena 
gumum 


The  Gothic  declension  of  this  noun,  it  will  be  seen,  has  only 
one  weak  point,  namely,  that  the  accusative  plural  had  assumed 
the  form  of  the  nominative.  But,  in  Old  English,  the  one  form 
guman  had  five  different  functions.  There  were  in  Old  English 
many  other  declensions  of  nouns  besides  that  of  which  the 
word  guma  is  an  example;  and  all  of  them  were,  more  or  less, 
faulty.     The  accusative  had  nearly  always  the  same  form  as 


Old  English  Grammar  43 1 

the  nominative.  In  some  nouns  the  genitive  singular,  and 
in  others  the  nominative  plural,  did  not  differ  from  the  nomi- 
native singular. 

These  observations  apply  to  the  West  Saxon  or  southern 
dialect  of  Old  English,  in  which  most  of  the  extant  literature 
is  written.  But,  while  the  West  Saxon  system  of  noun-in- 
flection was  thus  seriously  defective,  that  of  the  Northumbrian 
dialect  was  far  worse,  because,  in  that  dialect,  the  final  -n 
had  come  to  be  regularly  dropped  in  nearly  all  grammatical 
endings;  and,  further,  the  unaccented  final  vowels  were  pro- 
nounced obscurely,  so  that  we  often  find  them  confused  in 
our  texts.  It  was  quite  an  exceptional  thing  for  the  case 
and  number  of  a  substantive  to  be  unambiguously  indicated 
by  its  form.  The  ambiguities  were,  to  some  extent,  ob- 
viated by  the  inflection  of  the  accompanying  article  or  ad- 
jective; but  the  declension  even  of  these  parts  of  speech, 
though  better  preserved  than  that  of  the  substantive,  had, 
itself,  suffered  from  wear  and  tear,  so  that  there  were  only 
a  few  of  the  endings  that  had  not  a  multiplicity  of  functions. 

The  imperfection  of  the  Old  English  system  of  inflections 
must  sometimes  have  caused  practical  inconvenience,  and 
some  of  the  changes  which  it  underwent  w^ere  due  to  instinctive 
efforts  to  remedy  its  defects.  These  changes  naturally  began 
where  the  evil  was  greatest,  in  the  northern  dialect.  It  used 
to  be  believed — and  the  notion  is  not  altogether  extinct — 
that  the  almost  universal  substitution  of  -es  for  the  many 
Old  English  endings  of  the  genitive  singular  and  the  nomina- 
tive and  accusative  plural  was  a  result  of  the  Norman  conquest. 
But,  in  fact,  the  beginning  of  this  alteration  in  the  language 
can  be  traced  to  a  far  earlier  time.  In  the  Northumbrian 
writings  of  the  tenth  century  we  find  that,  very  often,  when  the 
traditional  ending  of  a  noun  failed  to  indicate  properly  its 
case  and  number,  the  required  clearness  was  gained  by  assim- 
ilating its  declension  to  that  of  those  nouns  which  made  their 
genitives  in  -es  and  their  plurals  in  -as.  As  -es  was  the  only 
ending  of  nouns  that  never  marked  anything  but  a  genitive 
singular,  and  -as  the  only  ending  that  never  marked  anything 
but  a  nominative  or  accusative  plural,  the  improvement  in 
lucidity  was  very  considerable.  We  lack  definite  evidence  as  to 
the  rapidity  with  which  these  two  endings  came,  in  the  northern 


432  Changes  in  the  Language 

dialect,  to  be  applied  to  nearly  all  substantives,  but  the  process 
probably  occupied  no  very  long  time.  The  change  of  declension 
synchronised  with  a  tendency,  which  prevailed  in  all  dialects, 
to  obscure  the  pronunciation  of  the  vowels  in  all  unstressed 
final  syllables,  so  that  -as  became  -es.  The  practice  of  forming 
genitives  and  plurals,  as  a  general  rule,  with  this  ending 
spread  from  the  northern  to  the  midland  dialect;  perhaps 
this  dialect  may,  in  part,  have  developed  it  independently. 
In  the  Peterborough  Chronicle  (about  1154),  and  in  the  north 
midland  Ormulum  (about  1200),  we  find  it  fully  established. 
The  English  of  educated  Londoners  had,  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  lost  most  of  its  original  southern  peculiarities,  and 
had  become  essentially  a  midland  dialect.  Hence,  the  writings 
of  Chaucer  show,  as  a  general  rule,  only  the  -es  plurals  and  the 
-es  genitives;  the  " irregular  plurals,"  as  we  may  now  call  them, 
being  hardly  more  numerous  than  in  modern  standard  English. 
Words  adopted  from  French  often  retained  their  original 
plurals  in  -s.  The  dative  case  disappeared  from  midland 
English  in  the  twelfth  century,  so  that  Chaucer's  declension 
of  substantives  is  as  simple  as  that  of  our  own  day. 

In  purely  southern  dialects,  the  history  of  the  noun-in- 
flections was  quite  different.  The  case-endings  of  Old  English 
— West  Saxon  and  Kentish — were  to  a  great  extent  retained, 
with  the  alterations  that  resulted  from  the  general  reduction 
of  their  vowels  to  an  obscure  e.  One  consequence  of  this 
"levelling"  of  vowels  was  that  there  was  a  large  number  of 
nouns  of  which  the  nominative  singular  ended  in  e-  and  the 
nominative  plural  in  -en,  as  name,  namen,  tunge  (tongue), 
tungen  (in  Old  English  nama,  naman,  tunge,  tungan) ;  and,  as 
the  -n  was,  in  these  words,  felt  as  a  formative  of  the  plural, 
it  was  dropped  in  the  oblique  cases  of  the  singular.  Hence, 
in  these  words  all  the  cases  of  the  singular  ended  in  -e,  and  the 
nominative  and  accusative  plural  in  -en.  To  the  extensive  de- 
clensions thus  arising  all  nouns  ending  in  -e  came  to  be  assimi- 
lated, including  feminine  nouns  in  which  this  ending  had  been 
extended  from  the  oblique  cases  to  the  nominative  singular, 
such  as  honde  hand  (Old  English  hond,  dative  honda),  sunne 
sin  (Old  English  synn,  dative  synne).  We  observe  here  the 
same  instinctive  struggle  against  the  ambiguities  induced  by 
the  progress  of  phonetic  change  that  we  have  seen  in  the  noun- 


I 


changes  in  Delusion  433 

declension  of  the  northern  and  midland  dialects,  although  the 
remedial  devices  adopted  were  different.  In  the  period  with 
which  we  are  here  concerned,  southern  English  did  not  greatly 
extend  the  -es  genitives  beyond  their  original  range,  while 
-es,  as  a  plural  ending,  was  nearly  confined  to  those  nouns 
that  had  -as  in  Old  English,  and  to  neuters  (like  word)  in  which 
the  singular  and  plural  nominatives  had  had  the  same  form. 
The  Old  English  termination  -um,  which  marked  the  dative 
plural  in  all  declensions,  survived  as  -en.  The  genitive  plural 
had  two  forms,  -e  and  -ene  (Old  English  -a,  -end) ;  the  latter^ 
as  the  more  distinct,  encroached  on  the  domain  of  the  former, 
so  that  "king  of  kings"  was  kingene  king  instead  of  ktnge  king 
(Old  English  cyninga  cyning). 

The  history  of  pronominal  forms,  like  that  of  the  declension 
of  nouns,  exhibits  certain  changes  serving  to  relieve  the  want 
of  distinctness  in  the  traditional  system.  These  changes 
began  in  the  Anglian  districts,  and  did  not,  for  the  most  part, 
reach  the  Saxon  region  till  after  Chaucer's  time.  The  forms 
of  the  Old  English  pronouns  of  the  third  person,  in  all  dialects, 
were,  in  several  instances,  curiously  near  to  being  alike  in 
pronunciation.  The  masculine  nominative  he  was  not  very 
different  from  the  feminine  nominative  and  accusative  heo 
(also  hie,  hi) ,  and  this  closely  resembled  the  plural  nominative 
and  accusative  hie  or  hi.  The  dative  singular  masculine  and 
neuter  was  him,  and  the  dative  plural  was  heom.  The  genitive 
and  dative  singular  of  the  feminine  pronoun  was  hire,  and  the 
genitive  plural  was  he  or  a.  The  one  form  his  served  for  the 
genitive  both  of  the  masculine  he  and  of  the  neuter  hit.  (The 
forms  here  cited  are  West  Saxon,  the  divergences  of  the  other 
dialects  being  unimportant.)  As  the  pronouns  were  most 
commonly  unemphatic,  such  differences  as  those  between 
him  and  heom,  hire  and  heora,  would,  usually,  be  slighter  in 
speech  than  they  appear  in  writing,  and  with  the  general 
weakening  of  unstressed  vowels  that  took  place  in  Middle 
English  they  were  simply  obliterated.  In  southern  Middle 
English  the  resulting  ambiguities  remained  unremedied ;  but 
in  the  north  and  a  great  part  of  the  midlands,  they  were  got 
rid  of  by  the  process  (very  rare  in  the  history  of  languages)  of 
adopting  pronouns  from  a  foreign  tongue.  In  many  parts  of 
these  regions  the  Danes  and  Northmen  formed  the  majority, 


434  Changes  in  the  Language 

or  a  powerful  minority,  of  the  population,  and  it  is  from  their 
language  that  we  obtain  the  words  now  written  they,  their, 
them  and,  perhaps,  also  she,  though  its  precise  origin  is  not 
clear.  She  (written  scce)  occurs  in  the  Peterborough  Chronicle 
about  1 1 54.  It  does  not  appear  in  the  Ormulum  (about  1200), 
which  retains  the  native  pronoun  in  the  form  ^ho;  the  some- 
what later  east  midland  Genesis  and  Exodus  has  both  words 
ghe  or  ge  and  sge  or  sche.  After  1300,  scho  is  universal  in  the 
northern  dialect  and  sche  in  east  midland ;  but  ho  was  common 
in  west  midland  down  to  the  end  of  the  century,  and  still  re- 
mains in  the  local  speech  of  many  districts.  The  Ormulum 
has  always  they  (written  j^e"??),  but  retains  heore,  hemm  beside 
the  newer  their,  them  (written  ^ewe,  ]>e-i^m) ;  in  the  fourteenth 
century  they,  their,  them  are  found  fully  established  in  all 
northern  and  east  midland  writings,  while,  in  the  west,  hy  for 
"they"  continued  in  use.  Early  in  the  twelfth  century,  the 
accusative  form  of  all  pronouns,  except  the  neuter  hit,  had 
been  replaced  by  the  dative.  Chaucer  uses  she  and  they; 
but  his  her  serves  both  for  "her"  (accusative,  genitive  and 
dative)  and  for  "their,"  and  he  has  always  hem  for  "them." 
In  the  south,  the  curious  form  hise  or  is  was  used  for  "them." 
With  regard  to  the  other  pronouns  it  will  suf^ce  to  mention 
that  the  form  ich  (with  ch  pronounced  as  in  "  rich  ")  was  general 
in  the  south,  while  elsewhere  the  Old  English  ic  became  / 
^  early  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

The  Old  English  inflections  of  adjectives  and  article,  and, 
with  them,  the  grammatical  genders* of  nouns,  disappeared 
almostly  entirely  early  in  Middle  English.  The  Kentish 
dialect  of  the  fourteenth  century,  indeed,  was  exceptionally 
archaic  in  these  points;  in  the  Ayenhite  (written  1340)  we  find 
for  instance,  the  accusative  masculine  form  of  the  adjective  and 
article  in  "  ane  gratne  dyeuel  "  (a  great  devil)  and  "  thane  dyath," 
for  which  Chaucer  would  have  written  "  a  gret  deuel"  and  "  the 
deeth."  In  other  districts  of  the  south,  also,  considerable 
traces  of  grammatical  gender  and  adjective  inflection  are  found 
quite  late.  But  the  north  midland  English  of  the  Ormulum  is, 
in  these  respects,  nearly  identical  with  that  of  Chaucer,  The 
article  is  regularly  the  undeclined ;  gender  is  determined  purely 
by  sex;  and  the  adjective  (with  rare  exceptions)  has  no  other 
inflectional  endings  than  the  final  -e  used  when  the  adjective 


Conjugation  in  Middle  English  435 

precedes  a  definite  or  a  plural  noun.  In  the  north,  where  final 
unstressed  vowels  had  been  silent,  the  adjective  and  article 
were  uninflected,  and  grammatical  gender  had  ceased  to  exist, 
before  the  fourteenth  century. 

Among  the  most  easily  recognisable  characteristics  of  Middle 
English  dialects  are  certain  differences  in  the  conjugation  of 
the  verb.  In  Old  English,  the  third  person  singular,  and  all 
the  persons  of  the  plural,  of  the  present  indicative  ended  in 
-th,  with  a  difference  in  the  preceding  vowel:  thus,  liifian  to 
love,  IWran  to  teach,  give  (in  West  Saxon)  he  hifath,  he  l^reth, 
and  we  lufiath,  we  l^rath.  In  the  northern  dialect,  this  -th 
had,  in  the  tenth  century,  already  begun  to  give  way  to  -s; 
and  northern  writings  of  about  1300  show  -es  both  in  the  third 
singular  and  in  the  plural  as  the  universal  ending.  The 
midland  dialect,  from  1200  onwards,  had  in  the  plural  -en, 
perhaps  taken  over  from  the  present  subjunctive  or  the  past 
indicative;  this  ending,  often  reduced  to  -e,  remains  in  the 
language  of  Chaucer.  The  third  singular  ended  in  -eth  in 
midland  English  (so  also  in  Chaucer) ;  but  the  northern  -s,  which 
has  now  been  adopted  almost  everywhere,  even  in  rustic  speech, 
is  found  in  many  rr-idland  writings  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
especially  in  those  of  the  west.  The  southern  dialect  preserved 
the  West  Saxon  forms  with  little  change:  we  find  he  luveth, 
we  liivieth  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The  plural  indicative 
present  of  the  verb  to  he  had  several  quite  unconnected  forms 
in  Old  English  •  sindon  and  heoth  in  all  dialects,  earon,  aron  in 
Northumbrian  and  Mercian.  In  the  thirteenth  century, 
sinden  occurs  in  the  north  midland  Ormulum  and  some  southern 
writings.  In  the  fourteenth  century,  northern  writings  have 
are  (monosyllabic),  midland  varies  between  aren  or  are  and 
been,  ben,  while  the  southern  form  is  beoth  or  buth. 

The  Northumbrian  dialect  had,  in  the  tenth  century,  already 
reduced  .the  -an  of  the  infinitive  to  -a,  and,  in  the  northern 
English  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  infinitive  and  the  first  per- 
son singular  present  were  destitute  of  endings  (the  final  -e, 
though  often  written,  being  shown  by  the  metre  to  be  silent) . 
In  other  dialects,  the  infinitive  ended  in  -en,  for  which  -e  occurs 
with  increasing  frequenc}^  from  the  thirteenth  century  onwards. 
Chaucer  and  Gower  have  both  forms ;  their  metre  requires  the 
final  -e  to  be  sounded  in  this  as  in  most  of  the  other  instances. 


436  Changes  in  the  Language 

but  it  is  probable  that,  in  ordinary  speech,  it  was  generally- 
silent  before  a.d  1400. 

The  forms  of  the  present  participle,  which,  in  Old  English, 
ended  in  -ende,  afford  a  well-marked  criterion  of  dialect  in 
Middle  English,  The  northern  dialect  had  falland,  the  south- 
em  fallinde ;  in  the  midland  dialect,  fallande  or  fallende  gradually 
gave  place  to  fallinge,  which  is  the  form  used  by  Chaucer. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  chapter  to  pursue  the  history  of 
early  English  inflections  in  all  its  details,  but,  before  leaving 
the  subject  of  the  development  of  the  grammar,  we  must 
say  a  few  words  on  the  question  how  far  the  rapid  simplification 
of  the  declension  and  conjugation  in  the  twelfth  and  succeeding 
centuries  was  an  effect  of  the  Norman  conquest.  The  view 
once  universally  held,  and  still  entertained  by  many  persons, 
that  the  establishment  of  Norman  rule  w^as  the  main  cause  by 
which  this  change  was  brought  about,  is  now  abandoned  by 
all  scholars.  We  have  seen  that,  in  the  north  of  England,  the 
movement  towards  a  simpler  grammatical  system  had  made 
no  small  progress  a  hundred  years  before  duke  William  landed ; 
and  the  causes  to  which  this  movement  was  due  were  such  as 
could  not  fail  to  be  increasingly  effective.  The  intimate  mix- 
ture of  Danish  and  native  populations  in  the  north  and  over 
a  great  part  of  the  midlands  must,  no  doubt,  have  had  a  power- 
ful influence  in  reinforcing  the  tendencies  to  change  that 
already  existed.  So  far  as  these  districts  are  concerned,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  the  history  of  English  grammar  would 
have  been  very  nearly  what  it  actually  was  if  the  Conquest  had 
never  taken  place.  It  is  peculiarly  worthy  of  note  that  the 
southern  dialect,  which  we  would  expect  to  be  most  affected 
by  the  French  influence,  and  which,  with  regard  to  vocabulary, 
certainly  was  so,  was,  of  all  dialects  of  Middle  English,  the 
most  conservative  in  its  grammar.  And  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe  that,  even  in  the  south,  the  spoken  language  had 
travelled  a  considerable  distance  towards  the  Middle  English 
stage  before  the  fateful  date  a.d.  1066.  vOnly  twenty  years 
after  the  Conquest,  the  Norman  scribes  of  Domesday  Book, 
writing  phonetically  and  without  influence  from  English 
tradition,  spell  local  and  personal  names  in  a  way  which  shows 
that  the  oral  language  had  undergone  certain  changes  that 
do  not  regularly  manifest  themselves  in  native  writings  until 


Influence  of  Norman  Conquest  437 

much  later.  And  some  of  the  charters  of  the  time  of  Edward 
the  Confessor,  which  exhibit  modernisms  that  are  commonly 
attributed  to  the  scribes  of  the  late  MSS.  in  which  they  are 
preserved,  are,  probably,  less  altered  from  their  original  form 
than  is  generally  imagined.  This  remark  applies  especially 
to  informal  documents  not  proceeding  from  professional 
scriveners,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  interesting  letter  of  the 
monk  Edwin  about  1057,  printed  in  Kemble's  Codex  Diploma- 
ticus,  No.  922. 

What  the  Norman  conquest  really  did  was  to  tear  away  the 
veil  that  literary  conservatism  had  thrown  over  the  changes  of 
the  spoken  tongue.  The  ambition  of  Englishmen  to  acquire 
the  language  of  the  ruling  class,  and  the  influx  of  foreign  monks 
into  the  religious  houses  that  were  the  sources  of  literary  in- 
struction, soon  brought  about  the  cessation  of  all  systematic 
training  in  the  use  of  English.  The  upper  and  middle  classes 
became  bilingual;  and,  though  English  might  still  be  the 
language  which  they  preferred  to  speak,  they  learned  at  school 
to  read  and  write  nothing  but  French,  or  French  and  Latin. 
When  those  who  had  been  educated  under  the  new  conditions 
tried  to  write  English,  the  literary  conventions  of  the  past 
generation  had  no  hold  upon  them ;  they  could  write  no  other- 
wise than  as  they  spoke.  This  is  the  true  explanation  of  the 
apparently  rapid  change  in  the  grammar  of  English  about  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century. 

It  would,  however,  be  a  mistake  to  say  that  the  new  con- 
ditions produced  by  the  Conquest  were  wholly  without  influence 
on  the  inflectional  structure  of  the  spoken  language.  Under 
the  Norman  kings  and  their  successors,  England  was  politically 
and  administratively  united  as  it  had  never  been  before; 
intercourse  between  the  different  parts  of  the  country  became 
less  difficult;  and  the  greater  freedom  of  intercommunication 
assisted  the  southward  diffusion  of  those  grammatical  simpli- 
fications that  had  been  developed  in  the  northern  dialect. 
The  use  of  the  French  language  among  large  classes  of  the 
population,  which  has  left  such  profound  traces  in  the  English 
vocabulary,  must  have  tended  to  accelerate  the  movement 
towards  disuse  of  inflectional  endings;  though  this  influence 
must  remain  rather  a  matter  of  abstract  probability  than  of 
demonstrable  fact,  because  we  have  no  means  of  distinguishing 


438  Changes  in  the  Language 

its  effects  from  those  of  other  causes  that  were  operating  in  the 
same  direction.  Perhaps  the  use  of  the  preposition  of  instead 
of  the  genitive  inflection,  and  the  poHte  substitution  of  the 
plural  for  the  singular  in  pronouns  of  the  second  person,  were 
due  to  imitation  of  French  modes  of  expression;  but,  in  other 
respects,  hardly  any  specific  influence  of  French  upon  English 
grammar  can  be  shown  to  have  existed. 

In  the  main,  therefore,  the  differences  between  the  grammar 
of  Old  English  and  that  of  the  English  of  Chaucer's  day  must 
be  ascribed  to  internal  agencies,  helped  to  a  certain  extent 
by  the  influence  of  the  language  of  the  Scandinavian  settlers. 
The  French  influence  introduced  by  the  Norman  conquest 
had  only  a  comparitively  small  effect. 

3.     Pronunciation  and  Spelling 

The  runic  alphabet  that  had  been  used  by  the  heathen 
English  was,  soon  after  their  conversion,  superseded  (for  most 
purposes)  by  the  Latin  alphabet  of  22  letters,  to  which  after- 
wards were  added  the  three  characters  ]>  (w,  called  wynn) , 
]>  {th,  called  thorn),  which  belonged  to  the  runic  alphabet, 
and  -S,  differentiated  from  d  by  the  addition  of  a  cross-bar. 
The  last-mentioned  character  was  used  indifferently  with  ]>, 
the  two  sounds  of  our  modern  th  (in  thick  and  in  this)  not 
being  graphically  distinguished.  The  u  or  v,  and  the  i,  were, 
in  ordinary  Old  English  spelling,  used  only  as  vowels,  the  Latin 
practice  of  using  them  as  consonants  not  being  followed. 
On  the  early  coins,  the  sound  expressed  in  modern  French 
by  u  and  in  German  by  ii  was  rendered  by  writing  a  V  with 
an  I  inside  it.  This  compound  character  in  MSS.  became  y, 
and  this  was  identified  with  the  Roman  y.  Instead  of  qu,  the 
combination  c]>  was  used  in  Old  English;  k  occurs  in  some  MSS., 
but  was  commonly  replaced  by  c;  z  was  used,  though  very  sel- 
dom, with  its  contemporary  Latin  value  of  ts. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  in  this  place  any  account  of 
the  changes  in  orthography  during  the  Old  English  period. 
About  A.D.  1000,  the  vowels  were  probably  sounded  nearly 
as  in  modern  Italian,  except  that  ce  stood  for  a  sound  in- 
termediate between  those  of  a  and  e  {i.e.  the  modern  southern 
sound  of  a  in  pat),  and  that  y,  as  already  remarked,  was  like 
the  French  u.     The  long  vowels,  which  had  the  same  sounds 


Middle  English  Spelling  439 

as  the  corresponding  short  vowels  prolonged,  were,  at  an  early 
period,  denoted  by  doubling,  and,  later,  by  a  mark  (about 
equally  resembling  an  acute  and  a  circumflex  accent)  over 
the  letter;  but  this  was  often  omitted.  The  consonants  had, 
for  the  most  part,  the  same  sounds  as  in  modern  English, 
but  some  exceptions  must  be  mentioned.  Several  consonant 
letters  had  more  than  one  sound,  and,  in  the  case  of  most  of 
these,  modern  English  retains  the  Old  English  pronunciation, 
though  not  always  the  same  written  symbol.  Thus,  in  fan 
fan,  '^fen  even,  sad  seed,  rtsan  rise  (sounded  "rize"),  pymte 
thin,  hro^or  brother,  cam  care,  cealc  chalk,  sceap  sheep,  scol 
school,  god  good,  gear  year,  \ing  thing,  sengan  to  singe,  docga 
dog,  ecg  edge,  the  Old  English  sounds  of  /,  s,  ]>,  c,  sc,  g,  ng  and 
eg  were  exactly,  or  nearly,  those  of  the  letters  occupying  the 
same  place  in  the  modern  forms  of  these  words.  In  the 
middle  or  at  the  end  of  a  word,  g  was  sounded  differently 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  neighbouring  vowels:  in  dcsg 
day  it  was  pronounced  like  y  in  "year,"  but  in  the  plural 
dagas  days  it  had  a  sound  that  might  be  written  gh,  dif- 
fering from  the  ch  in  loch  just  as  g  differs  from  k.  The 
letter  h,  when  initial,  was  pronounced  as  at  present;  but,  in 
other  positions,  it  was  pronounced  like  the  German  ch 
(either  guttural  as  in  ach  or  palatal  as  in  ich,  according  to 
the  sounds  which  it  followed).  It  will  be  seen  that,  with 
few  exceptions,  our  ancestors  of  the  eleventh  century  pro- 
nounced the  consonantal  part  of  their  words  much  as  we  do, 
even  when  they  wrote  it  with  different  letters. 

The  striking  change  in  the  written  language  of  England 
during  the  twelfth  century  was,  to  a  considerable  extent,  a 
matter  of  mere  spelling.  As  was  pointed  out  in  the  preceding 
section,  soon  after  the  Norman  conquest  children  ceased  to  be 
regularly  taught  to  read  and  write  English,  and  were  taught 
to  read  and  write  French  instead.  When,  therefore,  the 
mass  of  the  new  generation  tried  to  write  English,  they  had 
no  orthographical  traditions  to  guide  them,  and  had  to  spell 
the  words  phonetically  according  to  French  rules.  They 
used  ch  instead  of  the  old  c,  when  it  was  pronounced  as  in 
cirice  church.  The  sound  of  the  Old  English  sc  in  sceamn 
shame,  which  did  not  exist  at  that  time  in  French,  was  rendered 
by  ss,  ssh,  sch,  or  sh.     The  French  qu  took  the  place   of  c]). 


440  Changes  in  the  Language 

The  /  between  vowels  (pronounced  v)  was  replaced  by  ii  or  z; 
(these  being  still,  as  long  afterwards,  treated  as  forms  of  one 
and  the  same  letter,  used  indifferently  for  vowel  and  consonant) . 
The  Old  English  symbol  cu  was  dropped,  its  place  being  taken 
by  a  or  e.  The  sound  of  the  Old  English  y,  in  the  dialects 
where  it  survived,  was  expressed  by  u;  and  that  of  the  Old 
English  long  u  was  written  ou,  as  in  French. 

Of  course  these  changes  did  not  take  place  all  at  once. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  no  one  ever  read  an  Old  English 
MS.,  and  there  was,  for  a  long  time,  some  mixture  of  the  tra- 
ditional spelling  with  the  new  one.  Some  few  English  sounds 
admitted  of  no  tolerable  representation  in  the  French  alphabet ; 
and  for  the  expression  of  these  the  native  characters  were  re- 
tained in  use.  The  letters  ]?,  -S  and  |>  were  used,  though  often 
blunderingly,  even  by  scribes  who,  in  other  respects,  were 
thoroughly  French  in  their  spelling ;  though  often  we  find  their 
sounds  awkwardly  rendered  by  t,  th,  ht,  or  d,  and  u.  And  in 
the  twelfth  century,  though  the  continental  variety  of  the 
Roman  alphabet  was  generally  used  for  writing  English,  it 
was  found  convenient  to  retain  the  native  form  3  of  the  letter 
g  for  those  two  of  its  sounds  that  the  French  g  lacked,  namely, 
those  of  gh  and  y  (as  in  year) .  A  new  letter  was  thus  added 
to  the  alphabet,  and,  though  it  came  to  be  written  3,  exactly 
like  the  contemporary  form  of  z,  it  preserved  its  name  "yok" 
until  the  fourteenth  century.  It  may  be  remarked  in  passing 
that  the  ambiguity  of  pronunciation  of  this  letter  has  misled 
modern  writers  into  calling  the  author  of  the  Brut  "  Layamon" 
instead  of  "Laghamon";  the  incorrect  form,  however,  has 
become  too  well  known  to  be  displaced.  In  addition  to  the 
two  original  values  of  the  "yok,"  it  very  early  obtained  a 
third  use,  being  employed  (without  indicating  any  change 
of  pronunciation)  instead  of  the  Old  English  h  in  certain 
positions,  as  in  kniU,  ibro^t,  rom,  for  which  the  older  spelling 
was  cniht,  gebroht,  ruh.  But,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  many 
writers  substituted  y  or  i  for  5,  when  pronounced  as  in  ^eer 
(year),  and  gh  in  all  other  cases.  In  the  thirteenth  century, 
the  letters  ]?  and  -S  went  out  of  use,  the  former  being  replaced 
by  the  northern  French  w.  The  letter  ])  was  retained;  but, 
although  it  was  still  called  "  thorn"  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
it  seems  in  Chaucer's  time  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  mere 


Middle  English  Spelling  44^ 

compendium  for  ih,  which  generally  took  its  place  except 
initially.  It  may  be  noted  that  Thomas  Usk,  in  the  acrostic 
sentence  of  his  Testament  of  Love  (1387)  spells  yin  (thine) 
with  the  four  letters  THIN.  The  adoption  of  a  number  of 
French  words  like  ioic  (joy),  in  which  i  was  pronounced  like 
the  modern  English  /,  introduced  the  consonantal  use  of  this 
letter  into  English  orthography. 

The  Old  English  initial  combination  hi  survived  (written 
Ih)  in  some  dialects  down  to  the  fourteenth  century;  but  hr 
was  very  early  reduced  to  r.  For  the  Old  English  hw,  Middle 
English  writers  substituted  wh,  though  the  h  was,  at  first, 
often  omitted  in  this  combination,  as  in  other  positions,  by 
scribes  of  French  education.  The  northern  spelling  qua, 
quilk  for  wha,  whilk  (who,  which)  arose  from  a  dialectal  pro- 
nunciation of  qii  as  wh,  which  still  survives  locally  in  a  few 
words. 

From  the  twelfth  century  onw^ards,  the  letter  y,  when  used 
as  a  vowel,  was  treated  as  a  mere  alternative  form  of  i. 

The  Ormulum  is  written  in  a  peculiar  phonetic  spelling  de- 
vised by  the  author  himself.  This  is  based,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  on  native  tradition,  though  the  handwriting  is  of  the 
continental  type.  There  are,  however,  some  of  the  new 
features.  Orm  uses  ch  and  sh  as  we  do  now,  and  retains  the 
Old  English  form  of  g  for  the  two  sounds  which  the  French 
g  had  not.  A  device  peculiar  to  himself  is  the  appropriation 
of  different  shapes  of  the  letter  g  to  the  two  sounds  in  god 
(good)  and  egge  (edge).  But  the  most  noteworthy  character- 
istic of  his  orthography  is  the  method  of  indicating  the  quantity 
of  the  vowels.  The  shortness  of  a  vowel,  in  a  syllable  ending 
with  a  consonant,  is  shown  by  doubling  the  following  consonant, 
as  in  Crisstemidom.  When  the  short  vowel  ended  a  syllable 
in  the  middle  of  a  word,  Orm  marked  it  as  in  tdkenn,  and 
very  often  (though  not  always)  indicated  a  long  vowel  by  one, 
two,  or  even  three  "acute  accents"  over  the  letter.  This 
elaborate  and  cumbrous  system  found  no  imitators,  but,  as 
preserved  in  the  author's  autograph  MS.,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
important  aids  that  we  possess  for  ascertaining  the  English 
pronunciation  of  the  time. 

The  changes  in  spelling  that  we  have  thus  far  noticed 
are  merely  changes  in  the  manner  of  representing  sound.     There 


442  Changes  in  the  Language 

were  others  that  were  the  result  of  altered  pronunciation.  It 
very  often  happens  that  very  considerable  changes  take  place 
in  the  sounds  of  a  language  without  affecting  the  spelling,  even 
when  (as  was  apparently,  the  case  in  Middle  English)  there  is  no 
general  prejudice  against  deviations  from  traditional  correct- 
ness of  orthography.  Pronunciation,  as  a  general  rule,  is  not 
altered  deliberately,  but  unconsciously.  In  the  utterance 
of  what  is  intended  and  believed  to  be  one  and  the  same 
vowel  or  consonant  sound,  each  generation  may  vary  to  an 
almost  imperceptible  extent  from  that  which  preceded  it;  and, 
if  these  slight  changes  are  all  in  the  same  direction,  the  difference 
may,  in  the  end,  become  indefinitely  great.  The  normal 
result  in  such  cases  is  that  the  letter  comes  to  have  a  new 
phonetic  value,  and  the  spelling  is  not  effected.  The  reason 
why  there  are  exceptions  to  this  normal  course  of  things  in 
Middle  English  was  partly  that  sometimes  two  originally 
distinct  sounds  so  developed  as  to  become  identical,  and  partly 
that  the  orthography  of  French  supplied  a  kind  of  external 
standard. 

The  history  of  the  changes  in  English  pronunciation  down 
to  the  time  of  Chaucer  is  far  too  intricate  to  be  treated  here 
with  any  approach  to  completeness;  but  a  few  of  its  salient 
points  may  be  briefly  indicated. 

The  first  remark  to  be  made  is  that  the  course  of  develop- 
ment of  several  of  the  Old  English  sounds  was  quite  different 
in  different  parts  of  the  country.  When  we  compare  the  mod- 
ern English  pronunciation  of  home,  stone,  with  the  Scotch  and 
northern  hame,  stane,  we  see  the  last  term  of  a  divergent  devel- 
opment (which  began  very  early)  of  the  Old  English  long  a 
(pronounced  as  a  in  father).  While  the  northern  dialect 
progressively  altered  the  sound  in  one  direction,  the  midland 
and  southern  dialects  progressively  altered  it  in  the  opposite 
direction.  We  cannot  precisely  tell  how  far  the  change  in 
the  northern  pronunciation  had  proceeded  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  because  the  spelling  was  not  affected.  But, 
in  other  dialects,  as  we  know  from  various  kinds  of  evi- 
dence, the  sound  was  that  of  the  "open  o"  as  in  lord,  and  it 
was  expressed  in  writing  by  o  or  oo.  The  words  "goad" 
(Old  EngHsh  gad)  and  "good"  (Old  English  god)  are  both 
written  good   in  Chaucer's  spelling,  but   they  were  not   pro- 


Development  of  Sounds  443 

nounced  alike;  if  the  sounds  had  been  confused  they  would 
not  have  been  separated  again  in  later  pronunciation;  and 
Chaucer  never  rimes  a  word  that  has  the  "open  o"  with  one 
containing  the  "close  o. "  The  latter  retained  its  old  pro- 
nunciation (that  of  the  French  o  in  rose) ,  perhaps  a  little  modi- 
fied in  the  direction  of  its  modern  equivalent,  the  oo  in  cool. 

The  long  e,  like  the  long  o,  had  an  "open"  and  a  "close" 
pronunciation,  which  Chaucer  also  keeps  apart  in  his  rimes. 
The  open  e  comes  from  the  Old  English  (Anglian)  ^,  ea,  and 
the  close  e  from  Old  English  e,  eo.  A  word  like  chepe  to  buy 
(from  Old  English  ceapian)  which  had  the  open  e,  could  not 
correctly  rime  with  a  word  like  kepe  to  keep  (from  cepan)  which 
had  the  close  e.  In  northern  dialects,  the  distinction  was  so 
slight  that  poets  freely  allowed  the  two  sounds  to  rime  with 
one  another. 

In  all  the  dialects  of  Middle  English,  the  short  vowels 
d,  S,  0,  when  ending  an  accented  syllable,  were  lengthened, 
g  and  d  becoming  open  e  and  open  o.  In  Chaucer's  pronuncia- 
tion, mete  meat  (Old  English  mete)  was  an  exact  rime  to  grete, 
the  plural  of  the  adjective  great  (Old  English  greatc) ,  but  not 
to  grete  to  greet  (Old  English  gretan) ;  prote  throat  (Old  English 
]>rotu)  rimed  with  hote  to  command  (Old  English  hdtan),  but 
not  with  bote  benefit  (Old  English  bot). 

The  Old  English  y  (pronounced  u)  kept  its  original  sound  in 
the  south-west,  and,  perhaps,  in  parts  of  the  west  midland, 
being  written  u  when  short,  and  ui  or  uy  when  long;  in  Kent,  it 
had  become  e  before  the  Conquest;  elsewhere,  it  was  sounded 
exactly  like  i,  and  written,  like  that  sound,  indifferently  i  or  y. 
The  words  "fire"  "sin,"  "knit,"  have,  accordingly,  in  the  dif- 
ferent localities  the  three  types  of  form  futr,  ver,  fiir;  sunne, 
zenne,  sinne;  knutte,  knette,  knitte.  Chaucer,  whose  London 
English  was  mainly  east  midland,  uses  occasionally  a  Kentish 
form  like  knette. 

With  regard  to  the  pronunciation  of  consonants,  there  is 
little  that  needs  to  be  said,  as,  for  the  most  part,  the  Old  English 
sounds  not  only  continued  unchanged  down  to  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  but  remain  so  to  the  present  day.  The 
pronunciation  of  initial  /  and  s  q.s  v  and  2;  ("  vather  came  vrom 
Zummerzet"),  which  sounds  so  strange  to  visitors  to  the 
south-western  counties,  was,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  current 


444  Changes  in  the  Language 

all  over  the  south;  in  fact,  the  Kentish  Ayenhite  of  Inwyt, 
of  1340,  exhibits  this  pronunciation  in  the  orthography  with 
greater  regularity  than  any  other  extant  book.  The  gh  sound 
of  the  letter  5  gradually  changed  into  that  of  w,  and  this 
change  was  represented  in  the  spelling.  In  the  earlier  of  the 
two  MSS.  of  the  poetical  chronicle  called  the  Brut,  written  at 
the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  author's  name 
appears  as  "Lajamon,"  but,  in  the  later  MS.,  written  before 
1300,  it  is  turned  into  "Laweman."  On  the  other  hand,  in 
1340,  the  Kentish  Ayenhite  has  still  forms  like  zone  (sorrow) 
instead  of  Chaucer's  sorwe. 

4.     Changes  in  Vocabulary 

If  the  Norman  conquest  had  little  influence  on  the  devel- 
opment of  English  grammar,  its  effects  on  the  vocabulary  of 
the  language  were  profound.  It  introduced,  as  we  have  al- 
ready observed,  an  age  in  which  all  educated  Englishmen 
spoke  French  in  addition  to  their  native  tongue,  and,  for  the 
most  part,  wrote  nothing  but  French  and  Latin.  French 
became  the  language  of  law  and  government,  of  war  and  of 
all  that  pertained  to  the  life  of  the  wealthier  classes.  Of  the 
vernacular  literature  from  the  Conquest  to  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  by  far  the  greater  part  consisted  of  transla- 
tions from  French  and  Latin.  It  is  true  that,  down  to  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  nearly  all  that  was  written  in  English 
was  intended  for  readers  who  were  comparatively  unlearned; 
but  even  these  readers  could  be  reasonably  supposed  to  have 
some  degree  of  acquaintance  with  the  fashionable  language,  for, 
as  a  rule,  the  man  who  absolutely  knew  nothing  but  English 
probably  could  not  read  at  all.  And  when,  once  more,  it 
became  customary  to  write  in  English  for  highly  educated 
people,  authors  could  venture,  without  any  fear  of  not  be- 
ing understood,  to  borrow  freely  from  the  literary,  as  well  as 
from  the  popular,  vocabulary  of  the  French  language. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  the 
English  language  received  a  large  and  rapidly  increasing  acces- 
sion of  French  words.  A  few,  indeed,  seem  to  have  come 
in  even  before  the  Norman  conquest :  catchpoll  {kcBcepol)  occurs 
in  a  glossary  of  the  early  eleventh  century,  and  proud  (Old 
English  priit,  Old  Norse  prii'Sr),  if  it  be  really  French,  must 


Words  Adopted  from  French  445 

have  been  adopted  much  earlier.  In  the  Peterborough  Chronicle 
written  about  1154,  the  French  words  amount  to  nearly  a 
score.  Their  character  is  significant.  They  include  emperice 
empress,  cuntesse  countess  (of  Anjou),  curt  court  (king  Henr^'- 
II  "held  mycel  curt"  at  London  in  11 54),  dubbian  to  dub  a 
knight,  prison,  privilege,  rente,  tenscrie  (the  name  of  an  im- 
post). We  are  told  that  king  Henry  II  "  dide  god  iustice 
and  makede  pais  (peace)."  It  is  noteworthy,  as  indicative 
of  foreign  influence  in  the  monasteries  that  we  find  such 
words  as  miracle  and  procession,  and  that  carited  (charity) 
appears  as  the  technical  name  at  the  abbey  of  Peterborough 
for  a  banquet  given  to  the  poor. 

About  a  hundred  words  of  French  origin  may  be  collected 
from  the  southern  and  south  midland,  homilies  of  the  twelfth 
century,  although  these  works  are,  to  a  great  extent  only 
slightly  modernised  transcripts  of  older  originals.  Most  of 
these  new  words,  as  might  be  expected,  relate  to  matters  of 
religion  or  of  ecclesiastical  observance;  but  a  few,  such  as 
poor,  poverty,  riches,  honour,  robbery,  must  have  been  already 
in  popular  use.  The  north  midland  Ormidmn,  written  about 
1200,  is  almost  entirely  free  from  French  words.  The  author 
intended  his  work  to  be  recited  to  illiterate  people,  and,  there- 
fore, strove  to  use  plain  language.  But  his  employment  of 
such  a  word  as  gyn,  ingenuity  (a  shortened  form  of  the  French 
engin)  shows  that,  even  in  his  neighbourhood,  the  vernacular 
of  the  humbler  classes  had  not  escaped  the  contagion  of  French 
influence. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Layamon 
uses  nearly  a  hundred  French  words  many  of  which,  it  is 
interesting  to  note,  are  not  identical  with  those  occurring 
in  the  corresponding  passages  of  his  original.  In  the  later 
text  of  the  Brut,  written  about  1275,  the  reviser  has  not  un- 
frequently  substituted  words  of  French  etymology  for  the 
native  words  used  by  Layamon  himself. 

The  southern  version  of  the  Ancren  Riwle,  which  is  nearly 
contemporary  with  Layamon's  Brut,  is  much  more  exotic  in 
vocabulary,  more  than  four  hundred  French  words  having 
been  enumerated  as  occurring  in  it.  It  appears,  however, 
from  certain  passages  in  this  work,  that  the  women  for  whose 
instruction  it  was  primarily  written  were  conversant  not  only 


446  Changes  in  the  Language 

with  French,  but  also  with  Latin.  We  may,  therefore,  presume 
that  the  author  has  allowed  himself  greater  freedom  in  intro- 
ducing literary  French  words  than  he  would  have  done  if  he 
had  been  addressing  readers  of  merely  ordinary  culture.  Still, 
it  is  probable  that  a  very  considerable  number  of  the  words 
that  appear  in  this  book  for  the  first  time  had  already  come 
to  be  commonly  used  among  educated  English  people.  The 
occurrence  of  compounds  of  French  verbs  and  adjectives  with 
native  prefixes,  as  hi-spused  (espoused),  mis-ipaied  (dissatis- 
fied), unstable,  is  some  evidence  that  the  writer  was  in  these 
instances  making  use  of  words  that  were  already  recognised 
as  English. 

In  the  writings  of  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  and 
the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth,  the  proportion  of  Romanic 
words  is  so  great  that  we  may  correctly  say  that  the  liter- 
ary English  of  the  period  was  a  mixed  language.  The  inter- 
esting group  of  poems,  perhaps  all  by  one  author,  consisting 
of  Alisaimder,  Arthur  and  Merlin  and  Cwur  de  Lion,  contain 
many  long  passages  in  which  nearly  every  important  verb, 
noun,  and  adjective  is  French.  Nor  is  this  mixed  vocabulary 
at  all  peculiar  to  works  written  in  the  south  of  England.  In 
Cursor  Mundi,  and  even  in  the  prose  of  Richard  RoUe,  which 
are  in  the  northern  dialect,  there  is,  on  the  average,  at  least 
one  French  word  in  every  two  lines.  The  alliterative  poetry 
of  the  west  midland  and  northern  dialects  from  about  1350 
onwards  has  an  extraordinary  abundance  of  words  of  French 
origin,  many  of  which  are  common  to  several  of  the  poets  of 
this  school,  and  do  not  occur  elsewhere.  The  notion  prevalent 
among  writers  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries 
that  Chaucer  corrupted  the  English  language  by  the  copious 
introduction  of  French  words,  was  curiously  wide  of  the  mark. 
In  reality,  his  language  is  certainly  less  marked  by  Gallicisms 
than  that  of  most  of  the  other  poets  of  his  time,  and  even  than 
that  of  some  poets  of  the  early  years  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
It  cannot  be  absolutely  proved  that  he  ever,  even  in  his  transla- 
tions, made  use  of  any  foreign  word  that  had  not  already 
gained  a  recognised  place  in  the  English  vocabulary. 

The  English  literature  of  the  eleventh  century  is  almost 
wholly  written  in  the  southern  dialect,  which  was  comparative- 
ly little  exposed  to  Scandinavian  influence.     We  find  in  it, 


Scandinavian  Words  in  English  447 

therefore,  only  a  very  small  number  of  Norse  or  Danish  words, 
such  as  felaga  a  business  partner,  "fellow";  lagu  law;  huscarl 
"house-carl,"  member  of  the  king's  household;  htisbonda 
master  of  a  house,  "  husband  "  ;  hiisting  assembly  of  the  "  house- 
carls";  7ltlaga  outlaw.  But  when,  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
the  language  spoken  in  the  north  and  the  north  midlands 
again  began  to  appear  in  a  written  form,  the  strongly  Scandi- 
navian character  of  its  vocabulary  becomes  apparent.  The 
diction  of  the  Ormulum,  whose  author  bore  a  Scandinavian 
name,  is  full  of  Danish  words,  many  of  which  are  not  otherwise 
found  in  English  literature,  though  some  of  these  are  preserved 
in  modern  rustic  dialects.  In  Cursor  Mundi,  in  Genesis  and 
Exodus,  in  Havelok,  in  the  writings  of  Robert  Mannyng  of 
Brunne  in  Lincolnshire,  and  in  the  west  midland  alliterative 
poetry,  the  large  Scandinavian  element  must,  even  if  other 
peculiarities  of  dialect  had  been  absent,  have  been  quite  suffi- 
cient to  render  these  words  very  difficult  reading  for  natives 
of  the  south  of  England.  In  several  instances,  native  words 
that  were  in  extremely  common  use  were  superseded  by  Danish 
synonyms :  call  took  place  of  cigan  (another  Old  English  word 
of  the  same  meaning,  cleopian,  remained  as  clepe),  niman  was 
displaced  by  take  and  weorpan  by  cast. 

The  freedom  with  which  words  could  be  adopted  from. 
French  to  express  complex  and  abstract  notions  had  a  marked 
effect  in  checking  the  augmentation  of  the  English  vocabulary 
by  means  of  composition.  The  new  compounds  that  arose  in 
Middle  English  down  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century 
are  extremely  few.  Individual  writers  occasionally  ventured 
on  experiments  in  this  direction,  especially  in  translations  of 
Latin  formations  like  Dan  Michel's  ayenhite  ("again-biting") 
for  remorse;  or  Wyclif's  hamersmyter  for  the  malleator  of  the 
Vulgate,  and  soul-havers  for  animantia;  but  their  coinages 
seldom  found  general  acceptance.  The  prefixes  he-,  for-  and 
with-  (in  the  sense  of  "against"),  were,  however,  used  to  form 
many  new  verbs.  The  old  derivative  suffixes,  for  the  most 
part,  continued  in  use.  New  abstract  nouns  were  formed  from 
adjectives  and  substantives  by  the  addition  of  the  endings  -ness, 
-hode  and  -hede  (the  modern  -hood,  -head)  and  -ship;  new  ad- 
jectives in  -sum,  -fid,  -Itch  (-ly) ;  and  new  agent-nouns  in  -ere. 
The  ending  -ing  was  more  and  more  frequently  added  to  verbs 


44^  Changes  in  the  Language 

to  form  nouns  of  action,  and,  before  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  the  derivatives  so  formed  had  come  to  be  used  as  mere 
gerunds.  The  suffix  -liche  {-ly)  became  a  regular  means  of 
forming  adverbs.  As  the  Old  English  endings  -en  and  -icge, 
used  to  form  nouns  denoting  persons  of  the  female  sex,  had 
become  obsolete,  the  French  -esse  was  adopted,  and  added 
to  native  words,  as  in  goddesse,  fiendessc  and  sleeresse  (a  female 
slayer).  In  the  southern  dialect  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
there  appears  a  curious  abundance  of  feminine  agent-nouns 
formed  from  verbs  by  adding  the  suffix  -ild,  of  which  there 
are  one  or  two  examples  in  Old  English,  though,  singularly 
enough,  they  have  been  found  only  in  Northumbrian.  In- 
stances of  this  formation  from  the  Ancren  Riwle  are  heggild 
a  woman  given  to  begging,  cheapild  a  female  bargainer,  gmc- 
child  a  female  grumbler,  mathelild  a  female  chatterer,  totild 
a  woman  fond  of  peeping;  other  words  of  this  formation 
which  do  not  imply  any  disparagement  are  fostrild  a  nurse, 
and  motild  a  female  advocate.  Besides  the  feminines 
in  -esse,  the  fourteenth  century  shows  a  few  examples  of  the 
practice,  which  afterwards  became  so  common,  of  appending 
Romanic  suffixes  to  native  words.  Hampole  has  trowable  for 
credible,  Wyclif  everlastingtee  (after  eternitee) ,  and  Chaucer  slo- 
gardrie  and  slogardie  ("sluggardry"),  and  eggement  instigation 
(from  the  verb  "to  Qgg'')- 

Several  of  the  new  words  that  came  into  very  general  use  in 
or  before  the  fourteenth  century  are  of  unknown  or  doubtful 
origin.  Such  are  the  verb  kill,  which  appears  first  in  Layamon 
under  the  form  cullen;  and  the  substantive  smell  (whence  the 
verb) ,  which  superseded  the  Old  English  stenc  (stench) ,  origin- 
ally applicable  no  less  to  a  delightful  odour  than  to  an  unpleas- 
ant one.  Some  of  the  new  words,  as  left  (hand),  which  took 
the  place  of  the  Old  English  wynstre,  and  qued  bad,  have  cog- 
nates in  Low  German,  but  are  not  likely  to  have  been  adopted 
from  the  continent;  they  more  probably  descend  from  non- 
literary  Old  English  dialects.  Boy  and  girl  (the  latter  origin- 
ally applied  to  a  young  person  of  either  sex),  lad  and  lass,  are 
still  of  uncertain  origin,  though  conjectures  more  or  less 
plausible  have  been  offered. 

Not  less  remarkable  than  the  abundance  of  new  words 
added  to  the  English  \-ocabulary  in  the  early  Middle  English 


Loss  of  Native  Words  449 

period  is  the  multitude  of  Old  English  words  that  went  out  of 
use.  Anyone  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  go  through  a  few 
pages  of  an  Old  English  dictionary,  noting  all  the  words  that 
cannot  be  found  in  any  writer  later  than  about  the  year  1250, 
will  probably  be  surprised  at  their  enormous  number.  Perhaps 
the  most  convenient  way  of  illustrating  the  magnitude  of  the 
loss  which  the  language  sustained  before  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century  will  be  to  take  a  piece  of  Old  English  prose, 
and  to  indicate  those  words  occurring  in  it  that  became  obsolete 
before  the  date  mentioned.  The  following  passage  is  the 
beginning  of  Aelfric's  homily  on  St.  Cuthbert,  written  about 
A.D.  1000.  Of  the  w^ords  printed  in  italics,  one  or  two  occur 
in  the  Ormiilum  and  other  works  of  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  but  the  majority  disappeared  much  earlier. 

Cuthbertus,   se   halga  biscop,   scl-  Cuthbert,  the  holy  bishop,  shining 

nende    on    manegum    geearnungum  in  many  merits  and  holy  honours,  is 

and  haligum  ge^inc'^um,  on  heofenan  in  glory,  reigning  in  the  kingdom  of 

rice    mid    Jjam    £elmihtigum    Scyp-  heaven  with  the  Almighty  Creator. 
pende  on  ecere  blisse  rlxiende,  wuld- 

rap.  Beda,  the  wise  teacher  of  the  Eng- 

Beda,  se  snotera  Engla  f-eoda  Idr-  lish  peoples,  wrote  this  holy  man's 

eow,  fjises  halgan  lif  endebyrdllce  mid  life  in  order  with  wonderful  praises, 

wunderfullum   herungum,    aegj^er   ge  both  according  to  simple  narration 

cefter  dnfealdre  gereccednysse  ge  sefter  and  according  to  poetic  song.      Beda 

leoflicere  gyddunge,  awrat.      Us  ssede  has  truly  told  us  that  the   blessed 

soj^lice    Beda    J^a^t   se  eadiga    Cuth-  Cuthbert,   when   he   was   a   child  of 

berhtus,   J'a   \a.  he  webs  eahtawintre  eight,   ran,   as  his  ignorant  age  im- 

cild,  arn,  swa  swa  him  his  nytenlice  pelled  him,  playing  with  children  of 

yld  tihte,   plegende   mid  his  efeneal-  his    own    age;    but    Almighty    God 

dum;  ac  se  aelmihtiga  God  wolde  sty-  willed  to  guide  the  ignorance  of  his 

ran    J^asre   nytennysse   his   gecorenan  chosen  Cuthbert  by  the  admonition 

Cuthberhtus  )?urh  mynegunge  gelimp-  of  a  fitting  teacher,  and  sent  to  him 

lices  Idreowes,  and  asende  him  to  an  a  child  three  years  old,  who  rebuked 

yrywintre  cild,  J^aet  his  dysUcan  pie-  his  foolish  play  wisely  with  serious 

gan   mid  stco^yigum  wordum  wislice  words. 
yreade. 

In  the  first  thirty  lines  of  Aelfric's  homily  on  St.  Gregory, 
there  occur  the  following  words,  none  of  which  survived  beyond 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century:  andweard  present, 
gedeorf  labour,  gecnyrdnyss  study,  gesTeligllce  blessedly,  bigeng 
worship,  (Btbregdan  to  turn  away,  gebfgan  to  subdue,  drohtnung 
manner  of  life,  swutelllce  plainly,  wer  man,  gereccan  to  relate, 
eawjcBst  pious,  dcenned  born,  cB^elhorcn  nobly  born,  mcEg]>  kin- 
dred, wita  senator,  geglengan  to  adorn,  swegan  to  sound,  be 

VOL.  I. — 2g. 


450  Changes  in  the  Language 

called,  wacol  watchful,  hehod  command,  herigendllce  laudably, 
geswutelian  to  manifest. 

It  is  common  to  regard  the  obsolescence  of  Old  English 
words  after  the  Conquest  as  a  mere  consequence  of  the  intro- 
duction of  new  words  from  French.  The  alien  words,  it  is 
supposed,  drove  their  native  synonyms  out  of  use.  It  is  not 
to  be  denied  that  this  was,  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  case. 
On  the  whole,  however,  it  would  probably  be  more  true  to 
say  that  the  adoption  of  foreign  words  was  rendered  necessary 
because  the  native  words  expressing  the  same  meanings  had 
ceased  to  be  current.  When  the  literary  use  of  English  had 
for  one  or  two  generations  been  almost  entirely  discontinued, 
it  was  inevitable  that  the  words  that  belonged  purely  to  the 
literary  language  should  be  forgotten.  And  a  cultivated 
literary  dialect  always  retains  in  use  a  multitude  of  words  that 
were  once  colloquial,  but  which  even  educated  persons  would 
consider  too  bookish  to  be  employed  in  familiar  speech.  There 
were  also,  no  doubt,  in  the  language  of  English  writers  from 
Alfred  onwards,  very  many  compounds  and  derivatives  which, 
though  intelligible  enough  to  all  readers,  were  mere  artificial 
formations  that  never  had  any  oral  currency  at  all.  When  the 
scholars  of  England  ceased  to  write  or  read  English,  the  literary 
tradition  was  broken;  the  only  English  generally  understood 
was  the  colloquial  speech,  which  itself  may  very  likely  have  lost 
not  a  few  words  in  the  hundred  years  after  Aelfric's  time. 

It  might,  perhaps,  have  been  expected  that  the  special 
vocabulary  of  Old  English  poetry  would  have  survived  to  a 
greater  extent  than  we  find  it  actually  to  have  done.  We 
should  not,  indeed,  expect  to  find  much  of  it  in  that  large  por- 
tion of  Middle  English  poetry  which  was  written  in  foreign 
metres  and  in  imitation  of  foreign  models.  But,  about  the 
year  1350,  there  arose  a  school  of  poets  who,  though  they  were 
men  of  learning  and  drew  their  material  from  French  and 
Latin  sources,  had  learned  their  art  from  the  unliterary 
minstrels  who  had  inherited  the  tradition  of  the  ancient  Ger- 
manic alliterative  line.  These  poets  have  an  extraordinarily 
abundant  store  of  characteristic  words,  which  are  not  found 
in  prose  literature  or  in  the  contemporary  poetry  of  a  different 
school.  It  might  naturally  be  supposed  that  this  distinctive 
vocabulary  would  consist  largely  of  the  words  that  had  been 


The  Poetical  Vocabulary  45 1 

peculiar  to  poetic  diction  in  Old  English  times.  But,  in  fact, 
nearly  all  the  words  marked  in  Sweet's  Anglo-Saxon  Dictionary 
with  the  sign  (f)  as  poetical  are  wanting  in  Middle  English. 
The  fourteenth  century  alliterative  poets  use  some  of  the 
ancient  epic  synonyms  for  "man"  or  "warrior":  bern,  renk, 
wye  and  freke,  representing  the  Old  English  beorn,  rinc,  wiga 
and  freca.  A  few  words  that  in  Old  English  were  part  of  the 
ordinary  language,  such  as  m^lan  (Middle  English  mele),  to 
speak,  are  among  the  characteristic  archaisms  of  the  later 
alliterative  poets.  The  adjective  cE^ele,  noble,  became,  in  the 
form  athil,  one  of  the  many  synonyms  for  "man,"  and  often 
appears  as  hathel,  probably  through  confusion  with  the  Old 
English  h(Ele]>,  a  man.  The  word  burde,  a  lady,  which  is  famil- 
iar to  modern  readers  from  its  survival  in  late  ballad  poetry, 
seems  to  be  the  feminine  of  the  Old  English  adjective  byrde, 
high-born,  of  which  only  one  instance  is  known,  and  that  in 
prose.  Several  of  the  poetic  words  of  the  west  midland  school 
are  of  Scandinavian  origin,  as  trine  and  cair  (Old  Norse  keyra, 
to  drive) ,  which  are  both  used  for  "  to  go."  The  very  common 
word  tulk,  a  man,  represents,  with  curious  transformation  of 
meaning,  the  Old  Norse  ttdkr,  an  interpreter.  It  is  possible 
that  some  of  these  words,  which  are  not  found  in  modern  dia- 
lects, were  never  colloquial  English  at  all,  but  were  adopted  by 
the  poets  of  the  Scandinavian  parts  of  England  from  the  lan- 
guage of  the  ruling  class. 

The  disappearance  of  the  greater  part  of  the  old  poetical 
vocabulary  is  probably  due  to  its  having  been,  in  later  Old 
English  times,  preserved  only  in  the  literary  poetry  which  ob- 
tained its  diction  from  the  imitation  of  written  models.  To  this 
poetry  the  alliterative  poets  of  the  fourteenth  century  owed 
nothing;  the  many  archaisms  which  they  retained  were  those 
that  had  been  handed  down  in  the  unwritten  popular  poetry 
on  which  their  metrical  art  was  based. 

5.     English  Dialects  in  the  Fourteenth  Century 

Writers  on  the  history  of  the  English  language  have  been 
accustomed  to  quote,  as  if  it  related  to  the  condition  of  things 
in  the  year  1385,  the  following  passage  from  Trevisa:  "All  the 
language  of  the  Northumbrians,  and  specially  at  York,  is  so 


U 


452  Changes  in  the  Language 

sharp,  slitting  and  froting,  and  unshape,  that  we  southern  men 
may  that  language  unnethe  [hardly]  understand."  This 
sentence,  however,  is  not  Trevisa's  own,  but  translates  a  quota- 
tion by  Higden  from  William  of  Malmesbury's  Gesta  of  Pontifi- 
cum,  written  before  1125.  The  fact  that  Higden  and  Trevisa 
reproduce  Malmesbury's  words  without  comment,  can  hardly 
be  said  to  prove  anything.  Still,  although  Trevisa's  adoption 
of  Malmesbury's  statement  is  not,  considered  by  itself,  very 
good  evidence  as  to  the  amount  of  dialectal  divergence  existing 
in  his  own  time,  it  appears  likely  that,  on  the  whole,  the  differ- 
ence between  the  speech  of  the  north  and  that  of  the  south  had 
rather  increased  than  diminished  between  the  twelfth  and  the 
fourteenth  century.  It  is  true  that  the  decay  of  the  old  inflex- 
ions had  removed  some  of  the  dialectal  distinctions  of  the  earlier 
period,  and  that  greater  freedom  of  intercommunication  be- 
tween different  parts  of  the  country  had  not  been  without  effect 
in  producing  some  mixture  of  forms.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  development  of  pronunciation  had  been  divergent,  and  the 
gains  and  losses  of  the  vocabulary  had  been,  to  a  great  extent, 
different  in  the  different  regions. 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  throughout  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury strongly  marked  differences  of  dialect  were  not,  as  now, 
confined  to  the  less  educated  classes ;  nor  is  there  any  clear  evi- 
dence that  any  writer  attempted  to  use  for  literary  purposes  any 
other  dialect  than  that  which  he  habitually  spoke.  It  is  true 
that  Wyclif  was  a  man  of  northern  birth,  and  that  the  language 
of  his  writings  is  distinctly  of  the  midland  type.  But  this  is 
only  what  might  have  been  expected  in  the  case  of  a  distin- 
guished Oxford  teacher,  whose  life,  probably  from  early  boy- 
hood, had  been  spent  at  the  university.  Men  of  the  highest 
culture  continued  to  write  in  each  of  the  three  or  four  principal 
varieties  of  English.  The  dialects  may  have  been  somewhat 
less  unlike  in  their  written  than  in  their  spoken  form,  because 
the  spelling  was  too  much  under  the  influence  of  tradition  to 
represent  accurately  the  divergent  development  of  the  original 
sounds.  But,  in  spite  of  the  nearness  of  Canterbury  to  London, 
it  is  probable  that  Chaucer  would  not  have  found  it  quite  easy 
to  read  the  Ayenhite  of  Inwyt,  which  was  written  about  the 
time  when  he  was  born ;  nor  would  he  have  felt  much  more  at 
home   with  the    writings  of   his   contemporaries   among  the 


Dialects  in  the  Fourteenth  Century      453 

west  midland  alliterative  poets  or  those  of  northern  poets  like 
Laurence  Minot.  At  any  rate,  a  modern  reader  who  has 
learned  to  understand  Chaucer  without  great  difficulty  com- 
monly finds  himself  very  much  at  a  loss  when  first  introduced 
to  the  Ayenhite,  the  Morte  Arthure,  or  Sir  Gawayne.  Northern 
prose,  indeed,  is  to  us  somewhat  easier,  because,  owing  to  the 
loss  of  inflexions,  its  language  is,  in  some  respects,  more  mod- 
ern than  even  that  of  Chaucer. 

An  outline  of  the  distinctive  features  of  Middle  English 
dialects  has  already  been  given  in  the  sections  of  this  chapter 
treating  of  grammar  and  pronunciation.  The  following  com- 
parative list  of  forms  of  words  may  assist  the  reader  to  obtain  a 
general  notion  of  the  extent  and  nature  of  the  diversities  of  the 
written  language  of  different  parts  of  the  country  in  the 
fourteenth  century. 

Kentish  South-Western  E.  Midland  W.  Midland  Northern 

Fire  veer  vuir,  fuir  fiir  fuir  fier 

Sin  zenne  sunne  sinne  sinne  sin 

I  shall  say  Ich  ssel  zigge  Ich  schal  sigge  I  shal  seyn  I  shal  saie  I  sal  sai 

She  says  hy  zeyth  heo  seyth  she  seyth  ho  saith  scho  sais 

They  say  hy  ziggeth  hy  siggeth  they  seyn  hy,  thai  sayn  thai  sai 

Living  liviynde  liviinde  livinge  living  livand 

Her  name  hare  nome  hor  nome  her  name  hur  name  her  nam 

Their  names  hare  nomen  hure  nomen  hir  names  hur  namus  thair  names 

The  English  of  Scotland,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  hardly  used 
for  literary  purposes  until  the  last  quarter  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  when  Barbour  wrote  his  Bruce.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
the  other  works  ascribed  to  Barbour  are  not  of  later  date,  and 
the  Bruce  itself  has  come  down  to  us  in  manuscripts  written  a 
hundred  years  after  the  author's  time.  The  specific  features 
distinguishing  the  Scottish  dialect  from  northern  English  across 
the  border  will,  therefore,  be  more  conveniently  reserved  for 
treatment  in  a  later  chapter. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  forms  above  tabulated 
were  the  only  forms  current  in  the  districts  to  which  they  are 
assigned,  or  that  none  of  them  were  used  outside  the  regions 
to  which  they  typically  belong.  Local  varieties  of  speech 
within  each  dialect  area  were  doubtless  many,  and  the  ortho- 
graphy was  unfixed  and  only  imperfectly  phonetic.  Literary 
works  were  copied  by  scribes  who  belonged  to  other  parts  of 
the  country  than  those  in  which  the  works  were  composed; 
and,  consequently,  the  texts  as  we  have  them  represent  a  mix- 
ture of  the  grammar,  pronunciation  and  vocabulary  of  different 


\ 


454  Changes  in  the  Language 

dialects.  Vernacular  writers,  especially  poets,  often  added 
to  their  means  of  expression  by  adopting  words  and  forms 
from  dialects  other  than  their  own.  Hence,  although  in  the 
last  years  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  establishment  of  a 
common  literary  language  was  still  in  the  future,  and  the  varie- 
ties even  of  the  written  speech  continued  to  be  strongly  marked, 
there  are  few  writings  of  the  period  that  can  be  regarded  as 
unmixed  representatives  of  any  single  dialect. 

The  tendencies  that  ultimately  resulted  in  the  formation 
of  a  uniform  written  language  began  to  act  before  the  four- 
teenth century  closed.  In  London,  the  seat  of  legislative 
and  administrative  activity,  the  influx  of  educated  persons 
from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  led  to  the  displacement  of  the 
original  southern  dialect  by  the  dialect  of  the  east  midlands, 
which,  in  virtue  of  its  intermediate  character,  was  more  intel- 
ligible both  to  southern  and  northern  men  than  northern  Eng- 
lish to  a  southerner  or  southern  English  to  a  northerner.  The 
fact  that  both  the  university  towns  were  linguistically  within 
the  east  midland  area  had,  no  doubt,  also  its  effect  in  bringing 
about  the  prevalence  of  this  type  of  English  among  the  edu- 
cated classes  of  the  capital.  The  works  of  Chaucer,  which,  in 
the  next  age,  were  read  and  imitated  not  only  in  the  southern 
kingdom  but  even  in  Scotland,  carried  far  and  wide  the  know- 
ledge of  the  forms  of  London  English ;  and  the  not  very  dissim- 
ilar English  of  Oxford  was,  in  like  manner,  spread  abroad 
through  the  enormous  popularity  of  the  writings  of  Wyclif  and 
his  associates.  Even  in  the  lifetime  of  these  two  great  writers, 
it  had  already  become  inevitable  that  the  future  common  Eng- 
lish of  literature  should  be  English  essentially  of  the  east  mid- 
land type. 


CHAPTER  XX 

The  Anglo-French  Law  Language 

THE  profound  effects  of  the  Norman  conquest  on  the  vo- 
cabulary of  the  English  language  have  already  been 
considered.  It  remains  to  notice  a  special  cause  which 
had  its  own  peculiar  influence  on  the  language,  namely,  the  long 
retention  of  French  in  the  courts  of  law.  The  words  thus  nat- 
uralised have  become  a  part  of  the  current  speech  of  English- 
men, and  have  passed  into  the  language  in  which  English  books 
have  been  written.  This  long  familiarity  with  the  structure 
and  vocabulary  of  another  tongue  had  its  effect  on  literary 
style,  just  as  the  long  familiarity  with  Latin  had  in  the  case  of 
the  monastic  writers. 

The  effect  on  the  vocabulary  is  certain  and  considerable, 
though  it  is  impossible  to  draw  any  definite  line  and  decide 
which  words  are  due  to  the  use  of  the  French  language  in  the 
courts,  and  which  to  its  more  general  use  outside  the  courts. 
Again,  it  would  require  special  investigation  in  the  case  of  indi- 
vidual words  to  determine  when  they  ceased  to  be  know^n  only 
to  lawyers  and  became  familiar  (frequently  with  a  changed 
significance)  to  laymen. 

It  is  to  the  Year  Books  that  we  must  turn  to  see  what  the 
language  of  the  courts  actually  was  in  the  Middle  Ages.  These 
books  form  a  series  (not  unbroken)  of  summaries  of  cases  de- 
cided from  the  reign  of  Edward  I  to  that  of  Henry  VIII,  while 
there  is  a  note  book  of  even  earlier  cases,  of  the  reign  of  Henry 
III.i  Maitland  has  shown  good  reason  for  concluding  that 
this  note  book  was  used  by  Bracton  in  writing  his  great  treatise. 

Some  portions  of  these  Year  Books  have  been  edited  in 
recent  years  2  but,  for  the  present  purpose,  the  most  important 

'  Bracton's  Note  Book,  ed.  F.  W.  INIaitland. 

2  Cf .  the  Rolls  Series,  edited  by  Horwood  and  Pike,  and  the  Selden  So- 
ciety Scries,  edited  by  Maitland,  vols,  i,  ii,  in. 

455 


456      The  Anglo-French  Law  Language 

edition  is  that  of  the  Year  Books  of  Edward  II  edited  by  Mait- 
land  for  the  Selden  Society.  To  volume  i  of  this  series  Mait- 
land  prefixed  a  most  valuable  Introduction,  from  which  the 
following  pages  ^  are  extracts,  reprinted  by  permission  of  the 
council  of  the  Selden  Society : 

We  know  "law  French"  in  its  last  days,  in  the  age  that  lies 
between  the  Restoration  and  the  Revolution,  as  a  debased  jargon. 
Lawyers  still  wrote  it;  lawyers  still  pronounced  or  pretended  to 
pronounce  it.  Not  only  was  it  the  language  in  which  the  moots 
were  holden  at  the  Inns  of  Court  until  those  ancient  exercises  ceased, 
but  it  might  sometimes  be  heard  in  the  courts  of  law,  more  especially 
if  some  belated  real  action  made  its  way  thither.  The  pleadings, 
which  had  been  put  into  Latin  for  the  record,  were  also  put  into 
French  in  order  that  they  might  be  "mumbled  "  by  a  Serjeant  to  the 
judges,  who,  however,  were  not  bound  to  listen  to  his  mumblings, 
since  they  could  see  what  was  written  in  "  the  paper  books. "  ^  What 
is  more,  there  still  were  men  living  who  thought  about  law  in  this 
queer  slang — for  a  slang  it  had  become.  Roger  North  has  told  us 
that  such  was  the  case  of  his  brother  Francis.  If  the  Lord  Keeper 
was  writing  hurriedly  or  only  for  himself,  he  wrote  in  French. 
"Really,"  said  Roger,  "the  Law  is  scarcely  expressible  properly  in 
English. ' '  A  legal  proposition  couched  in  the  vulgar  language  looked 
to  his  eyes  "very  uncouth."  So  young  gentlemen  were  adjured  to 
despise  translations  and  read  Littleton's  Tenures  in  the  original.^ 

Roger  North  was  no  pedant;  but  he  was  a  Tory,  and  not  only 
was  the  admission  of  English  to  the  sacred  plea  rolls  one  of  those 
exploits  of  the  sour  faction  that  had  been  undone  by  a  joyous  mon- 
archy, but  there  was  a  not  unreasonable  belief  current  in  royalist 
circles  that  the  old  French  law  books  enshrined  many  a  goodly 
prerogative,  and  that  the  specious  learning  of  the  parliamentarians 
might  be  encountered  by  deeper  and  honester  research.  Never- 
theless, that  is  a  remarkable  sentence  coming  from  one  who  lived 
on  until  1734:  "Really  the  Law  is  scarcely  expressible  properly  in 
English." 

Had  it  been  written  some  centuries  earlier  it  would  have  been 
very  true,  and  its  truth  would  have  evaporated  very  slowly.  The 
Act  of  1362,  which  tried  to  substitute  la  lange  du  paiis  for  la  lange 
francais,  qest  trope  desconue  as  the  oral  language  of  the  courts,  is 

1  Pp.  456-460. 

2  Roger  North,  Lives  of  the  Norths,  1826,  i,  30. 

3  Lives  of  the  Norths,  i,  33;  Roger  North,  A  Discourse  on  the  Study  of  the 
Laws,  1824,  p.  13. 


Retention  of  French  in  the  Courts      457 

an  important  historical  landmark.^  But  we  know  that  it  was 
tardily  obeyed,  and  indeed  it  attempted  the  impossible.  How 
tardy  the  obedience  was  we  cannot  precisely  tell,  for  the  history 
of  this  matter  is  involved  with  the  insufficiently  explored  history  of 
written  pleadings.  Apparently  French  remained  the  language  of 
"  pleadings  "  properly  so  called,  while  English  became  the  language 
of  that  "  argument "  which  was  slowly  differentiated  from  out  of  the 
mixed  process  of  arguing  and  pleading  which  is  represented  to  us 
by  the  Year  Books.  Fortescue's  words  about  this  matter  are  well 
known.  2  In  1549  Archbishop  Cranmer,  contending  with  the  rebels 
of  Devonshire  over  the  propriety  of  using  English  speech  in  the 
services  of  the  Church,  said,  "I  have  heard  suitors  murmur  at  the 
bar  because  their  attornies  pleaded  their  causes  in  the  French 
tongue  which  they  understood  not."  ^  In  Henry  VIII's  day,  when 
the  advocates  of  a  reception  of  Roman  law  could  denounce  "thys 
barbarouse  tong  and  Old  French,  whych  now  seruyth  to  no  purpose 
else,"  moderate  reformers  of  the  Inns  of  Court  were  urging  as  the 
true  remedy  that  students  should  be  taught  to  plead  in  good  French: 
the  sort  of  French,  we  may  suppose,  that  John  Palsgrave,  natyf  de 
Londres  et  gradue  de  Paris,  was  teaching.*  No  doubt  they  felt  with 
Roger  North  that  "really  the  Law  is  scarcely  expressible  properly 
in  English." 

The  law  was  not  expressible  properly  in  English  until  the  lange 
du  paiis  had  appropriated  to  itself  scores  of  French  words ;  we  may 
go  near  to  saying  that  it  had  to  borrow  a  word  corresponding  to 
almost  every  legal  concept  that  had  as  yet  been  fashioned.  Time 
was  when  the  Englishman  who  in  his  English  talk  used  such  a  word 
as  "ancestor"  or  "heir,"  such  a  word  as  "descend,"  "revert,"  or  "re- 
main," must  have  felt  that  he  was  levying  an  enforced  loan.  For 
a  while  the  charge  of  speaking  a  barbarous  jargon  would  fall  rather 
upon  those  who  were  making  countless  English  words  by  the  simple 
method  of  stealing  than  upon  those  whose  French,  though  it  might 
be  of  a  colonial  type,  had  taken  next  to  nothing  from  the  vulgar 
tongue.  Very  gradually  the  relation  between  the  two  languages 
was  reversed.  An  Act  of  Parliament  could  do  little  to  hasten  the 
process ;  more  might  be  done  by  patriotic  schoolmasters. 

>  Edw.  III.  stat.  I,  c.  15  (Commissioners'  edition).  Observe  francais,  not 
francaise.  Having  written  trap,  the  scribe  puts  a  tittle  over  the  p,  which 
seems  to  show  that  he  meant  trope.  The  word  tittle  is  useful.  Thereby  we 
mean  "a  small  line  drawn  over  an  abridged  word,  to  supply  letters  wanting  " 
(Cotgrave).     It  is  the  Spanish  tilde,  which  we  see,  e.  g.  in  dona. 

2  Fortescue  de  Laudibiis,  c.  48. 

J  Cranmer,  Remains  (Parker  Soc),  p.  170. 

4  Maitland,  English  Law  and  the  Renaissance,  pp.  43,  72. 


45^      The  Anglo-French  Law  Language 

When  the  history  of  English  law  is  contrasted  with  the  history 
of  its  next  of  kin,  the  existence  of  law  French  is  too  often  forgotten. 
It  is  forgotten  that  during  the  later  middle  age  English  lawyers 
enjoyed  the  inestimable  advantage  of  being  able  to  make  a  technical 
language.  And  a  highly  technical  language  they  made.  To  take 
one  example,  let  us  think  for  a  moment  of  "an  heir  in  tail  rebutted 
from  his  formedon  by  a  lineal  warranty  with  descended  assets." 
Precise  ideas  are  here  expressed  in  precise  terms,  every  one  of  which 
is  French :  the  geometer  or  the  chemist  could  hardh^  wish  for  terms 
that  are  more  exact  or  less  liable  to  have  their  edges  worn  away  by 
the  vulgar.  Good  came  of  this  and  evil.  Let  us  dwell  for  a  mo- 
ment on  an  important  consequence.  We  have  known  it  put  by  a 
foreigner  as  a  paradox  that  in  the  critical  sixteenth  century  the 
national  system  of  jurisprudence  which  showed  the  stoutest  national- 
ism was  a  system  that  was  hardly  expressible  in  the  national  lan- 
guage. But  is  there  a  paradox  here?  English  law  was  tough  and 
impervious  to  foreign  influence  because  it  was  highly  technical,  and 
it  was  highly  technical  because  English  lawyers  had  been  able  to 
make  a  vocabulary,  to  define  their  concepts,  to  think  sharply  as  the 
man  of  science  thinks.  It  would  not  be  a  popular  doctrine  that 
the  Englishry  of  English  law  was  secured  by  la  lange  francais  qest 
trope  descontie;  but  does  it  not  seem  likely  that  if  English  law  had 
been  more  homely,  more  volksthumlich,  Romanism  would  have 
swept  the  board  in  England  as  it  swept  the  board  in  Germany  ?  .  .  . 

Now,  as  regards  vocabulary,  there  is  a  striking  contrast  between 
the  earliest  and  the  latest  Year  Books.  A  single  case  of  Henry  VIII's 
day  shows  us  "deer,  hound,  otters,  foxes,  fowl,  tame,  thrush,  keeper, 
hunting."  We  see  that  already  the  reporter  was  short  of  French 
words  which  would  denote  common  objects  of  the  country  and  gentle- 
manlysport.  Whatisyetmoreremarkable,  he  admits  "owner."  ^  But 
in  Edward  II's  day  the  educated  Englishman  was  far  more  likely  to 
introduce  French  words  into  his  English  than  English  words  into 
his  French.  The  English  lawyer's  French  vocabulary  was  pure  and 
sufficiently  copious.  It  is  fairly  certain  that  by  this  time  his  "  cradle 
speech  "  was  English ;  but  he  had  not  been  taught  English,  and  he 
had  been  taught  French,  the  language  of  good  society.  Even  as  a 
little  boy  he  had  been  taught  his  moun  et  ma,  toun  et  ta,  soun  et  sa.^ 
Of  our  reporters  we  may  be  far  more  certain  that  they  could  rapidly 
write  French  of  a  sort  than  that  they  had  ever  written  an  English 
sentence.  John  of  Cornwall  and  Richard  Penkrich  had  yet  to  la- 
bour in  the  grammar  schools. 

«  Y.  B.  12  Hen.  VIII,  f.  3  (Trin.  pi.  3);  Pollock,  First  Book  of  Jurispru- 
dence, 281. 

2  See  the  treatise  of  Walter  of  Biblssworth  in  Wright,  Vocabularies,  i.  144. 


i 


The  Making  of  Legal  Terms  459 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  some  of  the  words  which  "lay  in  the 
mouths"  of  our  Serjeants  and  judges:  words  descriptive  of  logical 
and  argumentative  processes:  words  that  in  course  of  time  would 
be  heard  far  outside  the  courts  of  law.  We  see  "to  allege,  to  aver, 
to  assert,  to  affirm,  to  avow,  to  suppose,  to  surmise  (surmettre),  to 
certify,  to  maintain,  to  doubt,  to  deny,  to  except  (excepcioner) ,  to 
demur,  to  determine,  to  reply,  to  traverse,  to  join  issue,  to  try, 
to  examine,  to  prove."  We  see  "a  debate,  a  reason,  a  premiss,  a 
conclusion,  a  distinction,  an  affirmative,  a  negative,  a  maxim,  a 
suggestion."  We  see  "repugnant,  contrariant,  discordant.' '  We  see 
"impertinent"  and  "inconvenient"  in  their  good  old  senses.  We 
even  see  "sophistry."  Our  French-speaking,  French-thinking  law- 
yers were  the  main  agents  in  the  distribution  of  all  this  verbal  and 
intellectual  wealth.  While  as  yet  there  was  little  science  and  no 
popular  science,  the  lawyer  mediated  between  the  abstract  Latin 
logic  of  the  schoolmen  and  the  concrete  needs  and  homely  talk  of 
gross,  unschooled  mankind.  Law  was  the  point  where  life  and 
logic  met. 

And  the  lawyer  was  liberally  exercising  his  right  to  make  terms 
of  art,  and  yet,  if  we  mistake  not,  he  did  this  in  a  manner  sufficiently 
sanctioned  by  the  genius  of  the  language.  Old  French  allowed  a 
free  conversion  of  infinitives  into  substantives.  Some  of  the  com- 
monest nouns  in  the  modern  language  have  been  infinitives :  diner, 
dejeuner,  souper,  pouvoir,  devoir,  plaisir;  and  in  the  list  whence  we 
take  these  examples  we  see  un  manoir  and  un  plaidoyer.  English 
legal  language  contains  many  words  that  were  thus  made — "a 
voucher,  an  ouster,  a  disclaimer,  an  inter-pleader,  a  demurrer,  a 
cesser,  an  estover,  a  merger,  a  remitter,  a  render,  a  tender,  an  at- 
tainder, a  joinder,  a  rejoinder" — ^though  in  some  cases  the  process 
has  been  obscured.  .  .  .  Were  we  still  "to  pray  oyer  of  a  bond,"  we 
should  use  a  debased  infinitive,  and  perhaps  it  is  well  that  nowadays 
we  seldom  hear  of  "a  possibility  of  reverter"  lest  a  pedant  might 
say  that  revertir  were  better.  Even  the  Latin  roll  felt  this  French 
influence:  "his  voucher"  is  vocare  suum, and  recuperare  suum is  "his 
recovery." 

But  the  most  interesting  specimen  in  our  legal  vocabulary  of  a 
French  infinitive  is  "remainder."  In  Edward  II's  day  name  and 
thing  were  coming  to  the  forefront  of  legal  practice.  The  name 
was  in  the  making.  When  he  was  distinguishing  the  three  writs  of 
formedon  (or  better  of  forme  de  doun)  it  was  common  for  the  lawyer 
to  slip  into  Latin  and  to  say  en  le  descendere,  en  le  reverti,  en  le  rema- 
nere.  But  the  French  infinitives  also  were  being  used,  and  le 
remeindre  (the  "to  remain",  the  "to  stay  out"  instead  of  the  rever- 


46o       The  Anglo-French  Law  Language 

slon  or  coining  back)  was  soon  to  be  a  well-known  substantive.  It 
was  not  confused  with  a  remenaunt,  a  remnant,  a  part  which  re- 
mains when  part  is  gone.  What  remained,  what  stayed  out  instead 
of  coming  back,  was  the  land.^  In  French  translations  of  such  deeds 
as  create  remainders  it  is  about  as  common  to  see  the  Latin  rema- 
nere  rendered  by  demorer  as  to  see  an  employment  of  remeindre, 
and  it  is  little  more  than  an  accident  that  we  do  not  call  a  remainder 
a  demurrer  and  a  demurrer  a  remainder.  In  both  cases  there  is  a 
"to  abide" ;  in  the  one  the  land  abides  for  the  remainder-man  (celui  a 
qi  le  remeindre  se  tailla) ;  in  the  other  case  the  pleaders  express  their 
intention  of  dwelling  upon  what  they  have  said,  of  abiding  by  what 
they  have  pleaded,  and  they  abide  the  judgment  of  the  court. 
When  a  cause  "stands  over,"  as  we  say,  our  ancestors  would  say  in 
Latin  that  it  remains,  and  in  French  that  it  demurs  (loquela  remanet: 
la  parole  demoert) :  "the  parol  demurs,"  the  case  is  "made  a  remanet.'' 
The  differentiation  and  specification  of  "remain"  and  "demur,"  "re- 
mainder" and  "demurrer,"  is  an  instance  of  good  technical  work.  .  . 
We  might  dwell  at  some  length  on  the  healthy  processes  which 
were  determining  the  sense  of  words.  There  is,  for  example,  tailler 
(to  cut  or  carve) ,  which  can  be  used  of  the  action  of  one  who  shapes 
or,  as  we  say,  "limits "  a  gift  in  some  special  manner,  but  more  espe- 
cially if  the  result  of  his  cutting  and  carving  is  a  "tailed  fee."  There 
is  assez  (enough)  with  a  strange  destiny  before  it,  since  it  is  to  en- 
gender a  singular  "asset."  We  might  endeavour  to  explain  how, 
under  the  influence  of  the  deponent  verbs  sequi  and  prosequi  which 
appear  upon  the  Latin  roll,  the  phrase  il  jut  nounsuivy  (he  was  non- 
suited) is  a  nearer  equivalent  for  il  'ne  suivit  pas  than  for  il  ne  jut 
pas  suivi.  Of  our  lawyers  as  word-makers,  phrase-makers,  thought- 
makers,  much  might  be  said. 

>  Pollock  and  Maitland,  Hist.  Eng.  Law,  ii.  21 ;  ChalHs,  Law  of  Real  Pro- 
perty, 2nd  ed.,  p.  69. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  VII 

THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SUNG,  OR  BALLAD,  METRE 

[It  has  been  thought  desirable  to  print  in  this  place  the  following 
account  of  Old  English  metre  as  adjusted  on  the  stress-system  to 
ballads.] 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  old  popular  metre,  which  suddenly 
assumes  such  prominence  in  later  Old  English  literature,  is  that 
in  each  half-line,  instead  of  the  two  beats  of  the  rhetorical  metre, 
we  have  four  beats,  two  of  which  are  chief  beats  with  full-stress, 
while  the  other  two  are  half-stress.  Between  every  two  of  the 
four  beats  there  is,  generally,  an  unstressed  sinking.  Elision  of 
the  sinking  may  take  place  in  any  position,  and  is  usual  before 
a  final  half -stress. 

The  Old  English  sung,  or  ballad,  metre  is,  fundamentally,  a 
four-beat  rhythm  which  must  end  in  a  stress.  It  differs  from  the 
ordinary  four-foot  ballad  verse  in  this,  that  a  far  greater  difference 
is  postulated  between  the  force  of  the  four  stresses.  In  any  natural 
English  four-beat  doggerel,  granted  it  be  not  of  expert  composition, 
we  come  upon  the  distinction  of  full-stresses  (')  and  minor  stresses, 
here  called  half-stresses  C) ;  e.g. 

The  king  was  in  the  counting-house. 
In  Old  English  verse,  these  stresses  and  half-stresses  could  not 
be  arranged  as  one  liked :  the  line  had  to  be  balanced. 
Fully  balanced  lines  can  be  divided  thus: 

A.      (x  x)  -  (x  x)  ^  (x)  X -(x)  ^. 

Modern  English  forms: 

The  king  was  in  the  counting-house. 

The  queen  was  in  the  parlour. 
Old  English  examples: 

and  l^a  earme  men  hit  beceorodon 

his  rice  men  hit  maendon. 
461 


4^2  Appendix  to 

B.  (x  x)  -  X  (x)  -  (x  x)  -  X  (x)  -. 

Examples  in  modern  English  are  rare.     Cf.  the  inner-rimed  line: 

Jack  and  Jill  went  up  the  hill. 

Old  English  example: 

x       >  :.       ^  X      ^ 

ne  wearS  dreorlicre  daed. 

C.  (xjx)  ^  X  (x)  ^  ^  (x)  ^. 

Examples  in  modern  English  nursery  songs  are  extremely 
rare,  because  of  the  modern  dislike  to  two  chief  stresses  coming 
together. 

Old  English  example: 

X    ,        i       X  ^ 

J>aet  he  aelj'eodige. 
AC.     (xjx)  i  X  (x)  -  X  (x)  -  (x)  ^. 
Examples  in  modern  English    nursery    songs    are    extremely 
numerous : 

and  in  my  lady's  chamber, 

sing  a  song  of  sixpence. 

Old  English  examples : 

X  ,   X     X  .:.       , 

He  wearS  wide  geond  j^eodland 

X  ,        X       ,        X      JL.  s; 

and  wurden  underfeodde. 

D.  Imperfectly  balanced  form:  -  (x  x)  -  (x)  ^  (x)  K 
This  form  always  tends  to  become 

-  (x  x)  -  X  -  (x)  ^  or  -  (x)  X  .:.  (x)  -  (x)  ^. 
Modern  English: 

four  and  twenty  blackbirds 
tends  to  become 

four  and  twenty  blackbirds. 
Old  English: 

and  utlaendisce. 

E.  Perfectly  balanced  form:   ^  (x  x)  ^  x  (x)  -^  (x)  x  s.. 
Modern  English  (with  inner  rime) : 

Jack  fell  down  and  broke  his  crown. 
Old  English: 

X       ,  ,  X         :^  X        , 

se  cyng  waes  swa  swiSe  stearc. 


Chapter  VII  463 

The  Old  English  ballad  verse,  in  contradistinction  to  its  modern 
representative,  was  quantitative  in  all  four  stresses. 

That  is  to  say,  a  stress  had  to  fall  either  on  one  long  syllable  or 
two  short  ones.  According  to  Lachmann's  original  theory,  which 
he  applied  to  some  High  German  ballads,  but  which  must  be  applied 
to  all  Old  English  ballads,  the  stress  then  fell  gradually  throughout 
the  length  of  the  two  syllables,  e.g. 

X  ,  X   X      i    ^       X      X    ,      , 

Ac  Godwine  hine  ]>a,  gelette, 
and 


Codes  wij'er  saecan  |  Godes  lage  braecon. 

This  is  most  clearly  seen  in   B    and   E,  where   two   shorts  so 
used  pair  absolutely  with  final  stress  and  half-stress,  e.g. 

i  X       ,         X      i      X  c    z. 

Eac  he  saette  be  J^am  haran 


X       X     2.    X       ^      c  . 
f aet  hi  mosten  freo  faran. 


and 


XX  ^  X    .:.  ^    X      X      ^         2. 

he  swa  swiSe  lufode  ]>a.  hea  deor 

,xx       s.    X     .^     ^     i,    ^ 
swilce  he  waere  heora  faeder. 

But,  at  the  end  of  the  line,  the  quality  of  a  syllable  constituting 
a  half -stress  was  indifferent,  the  pause  lending  its  support;  a  half- 
stress  could  not  at  that  place  be  divided  into  two  short  syllables 
(since  the  second  would  perforce  have  to  fall  too  low),  but  only 
a  full-stress.     Cf .  the  example  referred  to  above : 

X       i  X         ,  X  Z.  , 

his  rice  men  hit  maendon. 

It  seems,  then,  that  final  feet  (with  indifference  as  to  the 
quantity  of  the  half-stress)  could  be  carried  over  into  the  middle 
of  a  half-line  before  either  a  real  or  artificial  inner  pause  or  a  change 
of  musical  melody 

i.    ^  S.    ^  X  ^X     ±        X    ^      ^    ^ 

wide  I  and  side  ||    ]>a.  hwile  ]>e  \  he  leofode, 

X       ,         X      i      X  i    o 

Eac  he  saette  be  J'am  haran. 

a.  The  normal  (inner)  foot  has  a  maximum  of  two  unstressed 
syllables  and  one  stressed  long  (or  two  short)  syllable(s). 

fi.  Every  foot  is  subject  to  com^plete  elision  of  unstressed 
syllables — but  complete  elision  in  a  whole  half-line  is  extremel}' 
rare. 


4^4  Appendix  to 

y.  Between  a  full-stress  and  a  half-stress  complete  elision  is 
frequent  and  more  than  one  syllable  unusual,  e.g. 

X  ,       ,        x^  i 

and  God  him  geuSe  (no  sinking) 

X  ^X     i      X       o  s:.    ^ 

J>a  hwile  ]>e  he  leofode  (one  syllable). 

Modern  English  example: 

when  in  came  a  blackbird. 

On  the  other  hand,  after  a  half-stress  before  a  full-stress,  complete 
elision  is,  practically,  never  found.  In  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  cases  (c.  98  or  99%)  one  sinking  syllable  occurs,  though  two  are 
found  very  frequently.     The  number  of  exceptions  is  negligible: 

X  ,         XXc-.:.XX,i 

ac  Godwine  hine  fa  gelette  (two  syllables) 

X         ,  .;.      ,     X      ^ 

ne  wear6  dreorlicre  daed  (one  syllable).^ 

The  first  foot  was  composed  of  the  sinking,  called  the  anacrusis 
or  aujtakt,  and  the  first  stress.  In  the  earliest  form  of  the  strophe 
it  would  seem  to  have  been  the  rule  that  the  anacrusis  of  the  first 
line  of  the  couplet  should  be  one  syllable  longer  than  that  of  the 
second  and  should  never  exceed  two  syllables;  the  dissyllabic 
anacrusis  was,  apparently,  used  to  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new 
passage. 

In  the  poem  of  959,  out  of  some  24  couplets,  13  have  the  ana- 
crusis of  the  first  line  longer  than  that  of  the  second ;  in  8  the  ana- 
cruses are  equal  (or  both  lacking),  in  only  three  cases  is  there  a 
monosyllabic  anacrusis  in  the  second  line  and  none  in  the  first,  e.g. 

\  On  his  dagum  hit  godode  georne 

j       X         ,        ,       X   ,    , 
(  And  God  him  geu^e, 

r       X        X      .s    ^    ,     X     ,      , 
j  }>aet  he  wunode  in  sibbe 

jX         :.X     ^        Xcw, 

\  }si  hwile  ]>e  \  he  leofode. 

The  fourth,  or  final,  foot  differs  from  the  others  in  the  following 
characteristic : 

No  final  sinking  (.;.  x)  was  allowed,  i.e.  feminine  rime  did  not 
exist  in  our  sense,  both  such  syllables  being  stressed. 

•  For  a  further  discussion  of  this  subject,  the  reader  may  be  referred  to  a 
paper  by  the  present  writer,  read  before  the  London  Philological  Society, 
7  June,  1907. 


Chapter  VII  465 

Hence  the  line  could  only  end  in  a  stress  whether  full  or  half 
in  strength. 

In  the  falling  types  A,  AC,  C,  D,  the  last  foot  usually  consists 
of  a  single  stressed  syllable. 

J  he  saette  mycel  deorfriS 

[  and  he  laegde  laga  J^aerwitS 

X         ,       ,         x^  ^ 
A.         and  God  him  geut5e. 

X        ^   ^    s.     ^ 

C.  sy86an  Dene  comon. 

X      ,      X       ,      , 
AC.       gif  hi  woldon  libban. 

X        ^    X     ,  ,       , 

D.  his  maeges  Eadwardes. 

Of.  the  modern  English  nursery  rimes : 

The  maid  was  in  the  garden 

Took  him  by  the  left  leg 

as  chanted  by  mothers  to  their  children  with  the  heavy  final  half- 
stress. 

With  the  ending  -  -  c. 

(It  must  be  noted  that  in  Old  English  ballad  verse  a  single 
long  syllable  is  fairly  often  divided  into  •^  -  or  ■2'  -  as  well  as  into 
■^    ■^.     This  may   be   due   to  the   artificial   stress  on  the   second 

i    X  Z.   X       ^     J.    ^ 

member,  e.g.     A.  swiSost  J^ara  cyninga.) 

X         iX     ^       X       c  ^:.    i 

A.         ]>a  hwile  J'e,  he  leofode 

2.        J.  ,  X  o     c^ 

AC.       Her  com  Eadward  ae^Jeling 

X     i        ^   ^    ^ 
C.  and  he  I'ar  wunode. 

Much  less  frequently  the  ending  -  x  -  is  found  in  A,  AC,  C,  e.g. 
A.         Aelfere  ealdorman 

»     X  ,  X  JL  X       J. 

AC.       wala,  ]?aet  waes  hreowlic  sit5 

X     ,      1.      x^ 
C.  I'aet  he  aelf'eodiBe. 

From  this  last  two  are  derived  the  final  feet  of  such  nursery  rime 
rhythms  as 

"was  n't  that  a  dainty  dish." 
VOL.  1.-30 


4^6  Appendix  to 

In  the  rising  types  B  and  E  the  usual  form  is  one  unstressed 
syllable  and  a  final  full-stress,  which  may  be  divided  into  two 
syllables.  The  ending  with  a  dissyllabic  sinking  before  the  final 
stress  is  rarely  met  with  in  B  and  E. 

X  ;  X      i      X  2.  X  i 

B.         and  his  geferan  he  todraf 

X     ,  ,  X        ,  X        , 

E.          Se  C3mg  waes  swa  switSe  stearc. 

With  anapaestic  ending 

XX,      XX  Cw  ^  ^  XX 

E.         ac  se  uplica  wrecend  hafaS  his  gemynd. 

We  have  several  examples  of  the  verse  form  -  x  -  -  >^  ^i- : 

X  ,  X     ,       ^       c    -^ 

on  J^aere  earman  byr(i)g 

to  j^an  leofan  Gode. 

We  have,  further,  a  number  of  clear  instances  of  three-beat 
short  verses,  perhaps  originally  meant  for  strophic  use,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  four-beat  verses,  e.g. 

cinges  geseon 

X    i 

J'aet  gedon  weart5. 

It  is  a  question  whether  every  one  of  those  so-called  four-beat 
verses  without  any  sinkings  (even  between  half-stress  and  subse- 
quent full-stress)  is  not  to  be  reckoned  here  as  three-beat. 

Side  by  side  with  the  introduction  of  this  metre  into  literary 
use,  there  are  also  to  be  found  instances  of  rime  and  assonance. 

The  use  of  rime  and  assonance  tends  to  destroy  the  old  system 
of  linked  half-lines,  but  in  two  different  directions.  First,  in 
proportion  as  rime  and  assonance  grew  in  power,  alliteration,  which 
had  originally  been  the  connecting  link  between  the  tw^o  half-lines, 
diminished  in  importance,  until  eventually  it  was  used  mainly 
within  each  half -line  as  an  adornment.  Different  alliterating  letters 
occurred  in  each  half-line,  and  rime  or  assonance  succeeded  as  a 
bond. 

Hence,  the  half-lines  became  independent  and  the  four-beat 
couplet  resulted.  Secondly,  rime  or  assonance  was  further  used 
to  link  the  full  long  lines  into  couplets.  These  long  lines  were  then 
felt  to  be  too  long,  and  a  simple  means  of  avoiding  such  undue 
length  was  to  use  either  a  weak  four-beat  half-line  or,  more  usually, 
a  three-beat  half-line  together  with  a  full  four-beat  half-line  (of 


Chapter  VII  467 

six  to  eight  syllables)  to  make  up  the  whole.  A  new  line  with 
a  variable  caesura,  either  after  the  3rd  or  the  4th  beat,  was  thus 
constructed.  Examples  are  found  in  the  poem  in  the  Chronicle 
under  1057,  e.g. 

Her  com  Eadward  Ae}>eling  |  to  Englalonde 
and 

Eadmund  cing  |  irensid  waes  geclypod. 

But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  both  strophic  forms  are  usually 
found  in  these  Old  English  poems  without  the  need  of  either  rime, 
assonance  or  alliteration.  The  strophic  system  seems  to  have  been 
originally,  perhaps,  purely  rhythmic,  and  rime,  assonance  and 
alliteration  merely  its  adornments. 

Lastly,  this  sung  verse  is  found  in  other  Germanic  languages 
as  well  as  in  Old  English.  The  most  notable  instance  of  its  em- 
ployment elsewhere  is  in  the  famous  paraphrase  poem  of  Otfried, 
who  expressly  repudiates  the  solemn  rhetorical  metre,  which  must 
have  smacked  to  him  of  the  worship  of  the  heathen  gods.  This 
metre  could  not  have  been  of  Otfried's  own  composition,  since  it 
was  not  only  the  metre  of  the  Nibelungenlied  but  the  basic  metre 
of  other  German  ballad  poems,  and  is  identical  with  the  poems 
in  the  Chronicle.  The  following  examples  of  Frisian  metric  forms 
seem  to  show  that  these  also  were  based  on  the  same  old  Germanic 
metrical  scheme,  originally  the  common  property  of  all  the  Teu- 
tonic peoples.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  Old  Frisian  forms  (which 
do  not,  of  course,  correspond  to  the  Old  English,  but  to  the  Middle 
English  stage  of  the  development  of  this  metre)  show  all  the 
specific  Middle  English  developments.  These  are: — (i)  in  con- 
sequence of  the  lengthening  of  short  vowels  in  open  syllables  ex- 
pansions like  •^  X,  originally  the  equivalent  of  -,  become  equal 
to-  x;  (2)  the  use  of  alliteration  as  an  adornment  within  the  half- 
line  and  rime  to  link  the  two  half -lines  together;  (3)  the  apparent 
loss  of  the  final  half -stress  in  Old  Frisian  is  only  found  in  lines  not 
of  Frisian  popular  origin: 

A.  with  home  and  with  hlude. 

B.  wel  was  him  ande  sine  hei. 
AC.       Hi  welde  tha  sterka  Fresan 

X       i      X     , 

(riming  with  "under  sinne  tegetha  tian"). 

C.  da  dat  breef  reed  was 


468  Appendix  to  Chapter  VII 


(riming  with  "hoe  free  dat  manich  Fresa  was"). 

D.  ?       Tha  thi  Kening  Kerl  thit  understod 
riming  with 

E.  Tornig  was  him  hir  umbe  sin  mod. 

It  is  probable  that  all  D  forms  ^  x  i.  x  2.  x  z.  had  at  this  epoch 
become  .^XiX^xjL  as  most  likely  in  the  example  above.  The 
same  tendency  is  found  in  Otfried,  in  Middle  High  German  and 
Middle  English. 

The  Frisian  and  the  EngHsh  were  the  nearest  akin,  and  we  have 
in  both  languages  a  common  ballad  metre.  Perhaps  the  clearly 
popular  character  of  this  metre  explains  the  absence  of  erotic  songs 
and  popular  ballads  from  Old  English  literature.  Vulgar  ballads 
of  all  description  were  in  this  metre  originally,  and  what  epic  clas- 
sical matter  was  drawn  from  them  was  transformed  (not  always 
without  leaving  traces)  into  the  rhetorical  courtly  metre.  In 
England,  the  popular  metre  remained  deposed  in  favour  of  its 
younger  sister,  the  rhetorical  metre,  longer  than  elsewhere,  and 
its  sphere  must  have  been  exclusively  the  vulgar. 

J.  S.  W. 


1 


BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

In  the  bibliographies  that  follow,  references  to  other  histories  of  English 
literature  are  only  given  in  special  cases.  Similarly,  The  Dictionary  of 
National  Biography  is  mentioned  only  exceptionally.  Readers  may  be 
assumed  to  have  access  to  it,  at  any  rate,  to  its  valuable  Index  and  Epitome. 
And  it  has  further  been  assumed  that  the  student  can  refer  to  Korting's 
Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  englischen  Litteratur,  and,  if  he  be  interested 
in  Old  English  literature,  to  Wiilker's  Grundriss  zur  Geschichte  der  angel- 
sachsischen  Litteratur.  Both  books  are  indispensable.  W.  P.  Courtney's 
Register  of  National  Bibliography,  2  vols.,  1905,  will  also  be  found  very  useful. 

When  no  other  place  of  publication  is  mentioned,  it  may  usually  be 
taken  to  be  London. 

Abbreviations:  Arch.  =  Archiv  fiir  das  Studium  der  neueren  Sprachen 
und  Litteraturen  (Brunswick);  Ath.  =  Athenaeum;  BBA.  =Bonner  Beitrage 
zur  Anglistik;  HBeitr.  =  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache 
und  Literatur  (Halle);  JGPh.  =  Journal  of  Germanic  Philology  (Blooming- 
ton,  Indiana);  M L A.  =  Publications  of  Modern  Language  Association  of 
America;  MLN.=Modern  Language  Notes  (Baltimore);  MLR.  =Mod- 
ern  Language  Review;  NQ.  =Notes  and  Queries;  QF.  =Quellen  und  For- 
schungen  zur  Sprach-  und  Culturgeschichte  der  germanischen  Volker 
(Strassburg) ;  ZDA.  =Zeitschrift  fiir  deutsches  Alterthum  (Leipzig); 
ZDPh.  =Zeitschrift  fiir  deutsche  Philologie  (Halle). 

CHAPTERS  I  AND  III 

THE  BEGINNINGS  AND  EARLY  NATIONAL  POETRY 

General  Authorities 

Bode,  W.     Die  Kenningar  in  der  angelsachsischen  Dichtung.     Darmstadt, 

1886.     [Kenningar  =  descriptive  appellatives,  frequent   in   Old  English 

and  Old  Norse  poetry.] 
Bradley,  H.     The  Goths.      1888. 
Brooke,  Stopford  A.     History  of  Early  English  Literature  to  the  accession 

of  King  Aelfred.      1892. 
English  Literature  from  the  beginning  to  the  Norman  Conquest.      1898. 

[Both  works  contain  excellent  verse  translations.] 
Chadwick,  H.  M.     Origin  of  the  English  Nation.     Cambridge,  1907. 
Conybeare,  J.  J.      Illustrations  of  Anglo-Saxon  Poetry.      1826. 
Cook,  A.  S.  and  Tinker,  C.  B.      Select  tra:nslations  from  Old  English  poetry. 

1902. 
Courthope,  W.  J.      History  of  English  Poetrj-.     Vol  i.      1895. 
Dale,  E.     National  Life  and  Character  in  the  Mirror  of  Early  English  Lit- 
erature.    Cambridge,  1907. 

469 


470  Bibliographies  to 

Earle,  J.     Anglo-Saxon  Literature.      1884. 

Ebert,  A.  Allg.  Gesch.  der  Literat.  des  Mittelaltefs  im  Abendlande.  3  vols. 
1874-1887.     [The  standard  work  on  its  subject.] 

Elton,  C.     Origins  of  English  History.      1890. 

Ettmiiller,  L.     Engla  and  Seaxna  Scopas  and  Boceras.     Leipzig,  1850. 

Green,  J.  R.     The  Making  of  England.      1882. 

The  Conquest  of  England.      1883. 

Grein,  C.  W.  M.  Bibliothek  der  angelsachsischen  Poesie.  Vols,  i  and  11 
(Text).  Gottingen,  1857,  1858.  Vols,  iii  and  iv  (Glossary).  Cassel 
and  Gottingen,  1861-4.  2nd  ed.  by  Wiilcker,  R.  P.  Vol.  i.  Cassel, 
1 88 1-3.  [This  work  contains  the  text  of  all  the  poems  treated  in  these 
chapters  and  is  indispensable  to  the  student  of  Old  English  poetry.] 

Griffin,    W.   Hall.     A   Handbook  of   English   Literature.      1897.     [See   esp. 

PP-  5-15] 
Grimm,  J.     Deutsche  Mythologie.      1835.     Trans.  Stallybrass,  J.  S.      1883. 
Gummere,  F.  B.     Germanic  Origins:  A  Study  in  Primitive  Culture.     New 

York,  1892.     [A  useful  work  on  social  and  national  life.] 
Jiriczek,    O.    L.     Northern    Hero    Legends.     Trans.    Smith,    M.    Bentinck. 

1902. 
J6nsson,  F.     Den  oldnorske  og  oldislandske  Litteraturs  Historic.     1894. 
Jusserand,  J.  J.     Hist.  Litt.  du  Peuple  Anglais.     Vol.  i.     Des  Origines  a  la 

Renaissance.      2^  ed.     Paris,  1896. 
Kauffmann,  F.     Northern  Mythology.     Trans.  Smith,  M.  Steele.     1903. 
Keary,  C.  F.     The  Vikings  in  Western  Christendom.      1891. 
Kemble,  J.  M.     The  Saxons  in  England.     2nd  ed.  by  de  G.  Birch,  W.     1876. 
Ker,  W.  P.     The  Dark  Ages.     (Periods  of  European  Literature.)     1904. 

• Epic  and  Romance.     1897. 

Kogel,  R.     Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur.     Vol.  i,  Pt.  i.     Strassburg, 

1894. 
Korting,  G.     Grundriss  der  Geschichte  der  englischen  Litteratur.     Miinster. 

1887,  4th  ed.  1905. 
Laing,   S.     (ed.).     Heimskringla   Saga.     (R.   B.   Anderson's  ed.)     4    vols. 

1889. 
Longfellow,  H.  W.     Poets  and  Poetry  of  Europe.      1838. 
Z'     Merbach,  H.     Das  Meer  in  der  Dichtung  des  Ags.     Breslau,  1884. 
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I 


Chapters  I  and  III  47i 

Traill,    H.    D.     Social   England.     Vol.    i.      1898.     [Contains  useful   lists  of 

authorities.] 
Turner,     Sharon.     History    of     the    Anglo-Saxons.      1 799-1805.     ["Durch 

dieses  Werk  wurde  das  Interesse  und  die  Liebe  fur  die  altere  Zeit  in 

England  wieder  machtig  angeregt  "  (Wiilker).] 
Vigfusson,  G.      Icelandic  Sagas.      2  vols.      1887. 
Vigfusson,  G.  and  Powell,  F.  York.     Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale.     Oxford, 

1883. 
Wright,  T.     Biographia  Britannica  Literaria.      1842. 
Wiilcker,  R.  P.      Kleinere  angelsachsische  Dichtungen.      Halle,  1882. 
Wiilker,     R.     Grundriss    zur    Geschichte    der    angelsachsischen    Litteratur. 

Leipzig,  1885. 
Geschichte  der  englischen  Litteratur  von  den  Anfangen  bis  zur  Gegen- 

wart.     Leipzig,  1896,  1907. 
Zeuss,  J.  C.     Die  Deutschen  und  die  Nachbarstamme.     Munich,  1837. 

Beowulf 

[The  unique  MS.  is  in  the  Cottonian  collection,  British  Museum  (Codex 
Vitellius,  A.  xv).  It  was  first  noticed  by  Humfrey  Wanley  (1672-1726)  in 
the  catalogue  of  Old  English  MSS.  which  he  contributed  to  George  Hickes's 
Linguarum  veterum  septentrionalium  thesaurus  grammatico-criticus  et 
archaeologicus,  Oxford,  1703-5.  The  MS.  was  injured  by  fire  in  1731  before 
any  transcript  of  it  was  in  existence.  The  Icelandic  scholar  G.J.  Thorkelin 
had  it  transcribed  in  1787  in  the  British  Museum,  whither  it  had  been 
removed  from  its  Westminster  home  in  1753.  In  1815  Thorkelin 's  first 
edition  was  published.  See  Thorkelin,  inf.,  and  Sharon  Turner,  ante.  An 
autotype  facsimile  of  the  MS.,  together  with  transliteration  and  notes  by 
J.  Zupitza,  was  published  by  the  Early  English  Text  Society  in  1882.] 

Arnold,  T.     Prose  translation,   introduction  and  bibliography.     1876. 

Notes  on  Beowulf.      1898. 

Binz,  G.     HBeitr.  xx,  141-223. 

Boer,  R.  C.     Arkiv  for  nordisk  Filologi,  xv,  19-88. 

Botkine,  L.  Beowulf,  Analyse  hist,  et  geogr.  Paris,  1876.  French  trans- 
lation.    Havre,  1877. 

Bouterwek,  K.     Das  Beowulflied,  Pfeiffer's  Germania  i,  385-418.      1856. 

Zur  Kritik  des  Beowulfliedes  ZDA.  xi,  59-1 13. 

Brandl,  A.     Arch,  cviii,  152-5. 

Bugge,  S.     HBeitr.  xii,  1-112.  • 

The  Home  of  the  Eddie  Poems.     Trans.  Schofield,  W.  H.     Grimm  Lib. 

1899. 

Child,  C.  G.     Translation.     New  York,  1904. 

Dederich,  H.  Historische  und  geographische  Studien  zum  angelsachsischen 
Beowulfliede.     Koln,  1877. 

Earle,  J.  The  Deeds  of  Beowulf.  Prose  translation  and  introduction. 
Oxford,  1892. 

Ettmiiller,  L.  Carmen  de  Beovulfi  Gautarum  regis  rebus  .  .  .  gestis,  etc. 
Zurich,  1875. 

Beowulf.     Zurich,  1840 

Garnett,  J.  M.  Verse  version  and  bibliography  [includes  Finnsburh]. 
Boston,  1882  ff. 


472  Bibliographies  to 

Grein,  C.  W.  M.      Die  historischen  Verhaltnisse  des  Beowulfliedes.     Ebert's 

Jahrbuch  fiir  romanische  und  englische  Litteratur,  iv,  260-285. 
Grettis  Saga.     Translated  by  Morris,  W.  and  Magnusson.  E.      1869. 
Grundtvig,  N.  F.  S.     Bjowulfs  Drape.     Copenhagen,  1820. 
Beowulfes  Beorh  eller  Bjovulfs-Drapen,  det  Old-Angelske  Heltedigt, 

paa  Grund-sproget.     Copenhagen,  1861. 
Haigh,  D.  H.     The  Anglo-Saxon  Sagas,  1861.     [Favours  the  view  that  the 

scenery  in  Beowulf  is  English.] 
Hall,  J.  Leslie.     Verse  translation.     Boston,  1802,  1900. 
Hall,  J.  R.  Clark.     Translation.     [Good  bibliography,  includes    FinnsburhJ 

1901. 
Harrison,  J.  A.  and  Sharp,   R.      Beowulf  and  Finnsburh.      Boston,   1883. 

Based  on  Heyne. 
Heinzel,  R.     tjber  den  Styl  der  altegerman.  Poesie  (QF.  10). 
Heusler,  A.     ZDA.  xlviii,  57-87. 
Heyne,   M.     [A  good  edition.]     Paderborn,    1863.     7th  ed.  by  Socin,   A., 

1903. 
Holder,  A.     Freiburg  and  Tubingen,  1884.     2nd  ed.,  1899. 
Holthausen,  F.     [Contains  a  good  bibliography.]     Heidelberg,  1906. 
Jordanes  or  Jornandes  (6th  c).     De  origine  actibusque  Getarum. 
Kemble,  J.  M.     The  Anglo-Saxon  Poems  of  Beowulf,  the  Traveller's  Song, 

and   the  Battle  of    Finnesburh.      1833.     2nd   ed.,    1835.     Translation, 

1837.     [Kemble,    Leo,  and  Ettmuller  incline  towards  a  mythological  in- 
terpretation of  the  poem.] 
Kohler,  A.     ZDPh.     11,  305-321. 

Kolbing,   E.     Zur  Beovulfhandschrift.     Arct .    lvi,    91-118    (1876).     1876. 
Krueger,   Th.     Geschichte   der   B.    Kritik.     See    Wiilker's   Grundriss,    515. 
Laistner,  L.     Nebelsagen.     Stuttgart,  1879. 
Leo,  H.     Beowulf.     Halle,  1839. 
Lumsden,  H.  W.     Beowulf,  an  Old  English    Poem,   translated  into  Modern 

Rhymes.     1881. 
Moller,  H.     Das  altenglische  Volksepos.     Kiel,  1883.     [Considers  that  the 

Old  English  epic  has  a  strophic  form.] 
Moorman,  F.     The  Interpretation  of  Nature  in  English  Poetry  (QF.  95). 

Strassburg,  1905. 
Morris,  W.  and  Wyatt,  A.  J.     The  Tale  of  Beowulf  (translated).     1898.  , 

Miillenhoff,   K.     Beovulf.     Berlin,   1889.     [M.'s  view  is  that  the  poem,   as 

we  have  it,  is  made  up  of  parts  which  were  originally  separate  lays.] 

Sceaf  und  seine  Nachkommen.     ZDA.  vii,  410. 

Die  innere  Geschichte  des  B.     ZDA.  (1869)  xiv,  242. 

Zur  deutschen  Heldensage.     ZDA.  xii,  253-386.      1865. 

Muller,  N.     Die  Mythen  im  Beowulf.      Leipzig,  1878. 

Olrik,  A.     Danmarks  Helte-Digtning.     Copenhagen,  1903. 

Sarrazin,  G.     Beowulf  Studien.      Berlin,   1888. 

Sievers,  E.     Berichte  der  k.  sachs.  Gesellsch.  d.  Wiss.  xlvii,  175-192. 

Zur  Rhythmik  des  germ.    Alliterationsverses.    [HBeitr.  x,  209  and  451.] 

Simrock,   Karl.     Beowulf.     Stuttgart  and  Augsburg,    1859. 

Skeat,  W.  W.     J.  of  Phil.,  July,  1886.     The  Monster  Grendel  in  Beowulf. 

See  also  Academy,  1876-7. 
Ten  Brink,  B.     Beowulf  (QF.  62).     Strassburg,  1888. 
Tinker,  C.  B.     The  translations  of  Beowulf:  a  critical  bibliography.     Yale 

Studies.     New  York,  1903.     See  also  under  Cook  and  Tinker  above. 


I 


Chapters  I  and  III  473 

Thorkelin,  G.  J.     De  Danorum  Rebus  Gestis  Secul.  in  et  iv.     Copenhagen, 

1815.     [For    early    discussions    consequent    upon    the    appearance    of 

ThorkeHn's  work,   see   Morley,   EngHsh   Writers,   i,   356,   and   Wiilker's 

Grundriss.] 
Thorpe,  B.     The  Anglo-Saxon  Poems  of  Beowulf,  the  Scop  or  Gleeman's 

Tale,  and  the  Fight  at  Finnesburg.    Oxford,  1855.    Includes  translations. 
Trautmann,  M.     Bonn,  1904.     BBA.  xvi. 

Volsunga  Saga.     Trans.  Morris,  W.  and  Magnusson,  E.      1876,  1888. 
Wyatt,  A.  J.     Text  and  Notes.     Cambridge,  1894.     2nd  ed.,  1899. 

Charms,  etc. 

MSS.      See  Grein-Wiilcker,  Bibl.  i,  pp.  414-6;   Wiilker,  Grundriss,  pp.  347- 

355- 
Bradley,  H.     Arch,  cviii,  144  f. 
Cockayne,  T.  O.      Leechdoms,  Wortcunning  and  Starcraft  of  Early  England. 

3  vols.      Rolls  Series.      1864-6. 
Grimm,  J.     Deutsche  Mythologie  (see  above),  pp.  1236-40,  1243-5. 
Kemble,  J.  M.      Saxons  in  England  (see  above),  i,  pp.  403  f.,  528-535. 
Kogel,  R.     Gesch.  der  deutsch.  Litt.  (see  above),  i,  i,  pp.  39-42,  88  f.,  93-5. 
Payne,  J.  F.     English   Medicine   in  the   Anglo-Saxon  Times,  pp.  137-142. 

Oxford,  1904. 

Deor 

(For  the  Exeter  Book  see  bibliography  to  Chapter  iv.) 

Atlantic  Monthly,  The,  lxvii,  287  (Febr.  1891).     Translation. 
Miillenhoff,  K.     ZDA.  xi,  272-5;  xii,  261;  vii,  530  f. 
Tupper,  J.  W.     MLN.  x,  125-7. 

The  Finnsburh  Fragment 

This  poem  included  in  most  of  the  editions  and  translations  of  Beowulf 
given  above,  uee  under:  Garnett,  Clark  Hall,  Ettmiiller,  Grein,  Moller, 
Bugge,  Binz,  Harrison  and  Sharp,  Kemble,  Thorpe,  etc.;  also  under  general 
authorities  for  this  and  the  following  poems,  Mone,  Wiilcker,  etc.  [Discovered 
by  George  Hickes  in  the  library  of  Lambeth  Palace  as  part  of  the  cover 
of  another  MS.     See  Hickes,  op.  cit.     The  MS.  of  the  fragment  is  now  lost.] 

Boer,  R.  C.     ZDA.  xlvii,  125-160. 

Hickes,  G.     Linguarum  Septentrionalium  Thesaurus,   I,  p.   192  f.     Oxford, 

1705- 
Jellinek,  M.  H.      HBeitr.  xv,  428-431. 
MiillenhofiE,  K.     ZDA.  xi,  281-3. 
Rieger,  M.     ZDA.  xviii,  9-13. 
Schilling,  H.     MLN.  i,  178-183,  231-3;  11,  291-9. 
Swiggctt.     MLN.  XX,  169-171. 
Trautmann,  M.     BBA.  vii,  1-64. 
Ten  Brink,  B.     In  Paul's  Grundriss  der  germ.  Philologie,  11,  545-50. 

The  Ruin 

(See  also  under  Grein  and  Hicketier  below.) 
Earle,  J.     An  ancient  Saxon  Poem  of  a  City  in  Ruins,  supposed  to  be  Bath. 

Bath,   1872. 


474  Bibliography  to 

Earle,  J.     Academy,  July,   12,   1884.      (Trans.)     [The  reader  may  also  like 
to  be  reminded  of  Browning's  Love  among  the  Ruins.] 

The   Seafarer 

(See  also  under  Ferrell  and  Lawrence  below.) 

Honncher,  E.     Anglia,  ix,  435-446. 
Kluge,  F.     Englische  Studien,  vi,  322-7;  viii,  472-4. 
Merry,  G.  R.     Academy,  Febr.  8,  1890.      (Trans.) 
Rieger,  M.     ZDPh.  i,  331-9. 

Waldhere 

[The  MS.  consists  of   two    leaves  discovered  by  E.  C.   Werlauff  in  the 
National  Library  of  Copenhagen  as  part  of  the  binding  of  another  book.] 

Althof,  H.     Waltharii  Poesis.     Leipzig,  1899- 1905. 

Dieter,  F.     Anglia,  x,  227-234;  xi,  159-170. 

Dietrich,  F.  and  Mullenhoff,  K.     ZDA.  xii,  264-279. 

Heinzel,  R.     Uber  die  Walthersage.     Vienna,  1889. 

Kelle,  J.     Gesch.  der  deutschen  Litt.  i,  pp.  218-226.     Berlin,  1892. 

Kolbing,  E.     Die  Waldere  Fragmente.     Engl.  St.  v,  240  f.,  292  f. 

Learned,  M.  D.     The  Saga  of  Walther  of  Aquitaine.      MLA.      1892. 

Stephens,  G.     Two  Leaves  of  King  Waldere's  Lay.     Copenhagen  and  London, 

i860.      (Text,  translation,  etc.) 
Symons,  B.      In  Paul's  Grundriss  (2nd  ed.),  in,  703-9. 
Trautmann,  M.     BBA.  xi,  133-8. 

The  Wanderer 

Boer,  R.  C.     ZDPh.  xxxv,  1-28. 

Brown,  A.  R.     Poet-Lore.     March,  1891.     (Trans.) 

Ferrell,  C.     MLN.  ix,  402-7. 

Hickey,  E.  H.     Academy,  May  14,  1881.     (Trans.) 

Lawrence,  W.  W.     JGPh.  iv,  460-480. 

Rice  Sims,  W.     MLN.  v,  402-4.     (Trans.) 

Rieger,  M.     ZDPh. i,  324-331. 

WiDSITH 

(See  also  under  Beowulf:  Kemble,  Thorpe.) 

Binz,  G.     HBeitr.  xx,  141-223. 

Bojunga,  K.     HBeitr.  xvi,  545-8. 

Guest,  E.     History  of  English  Rhythms.     1838.     Ed.  Skeat,  W.  W.     1882. 

Gummere,  F.     MLN.  iv,  418-423.     (Trans.) 

Moller,  H.     Das  Altenglische  Volksepos.     Kiel,  1883. 

Mullenhoff,  K.     ZDA.  xi,  275-294. 

Nordalb.  Stud,  i,  148,  165. 

Schiitte,  G.     Oldsagn  om  Godtjod.     Copenhagen,  1907. 
Ten  Brink,  B.     In  Paul's  Grundriss,  11,  538-545. 


Chapter  II  475 


The  Wife's  Complaint  and  The  Husband's  Message 

Blackburn,  F.  A.     JGPh.  iii,  1-13   (text,  translation,  etc.  of  The  Husband's 

Message.) 
Grain,  C.  W.  M.      Kurzegefasste  angelsachsische  Grammatik,  p.  10.     Cassel, 

1880. 
Hicketier,  F.     Anglia,  xi,  363-8. 

Roeder,  F.     Die  Familie  bei  den  Angelsachsen,  pp.  1 12-126.     Halle,  1899. 
Trautmann.  M.     Anglia,  xvi,  207-225. 

CHAPTER   II 

RUNES  AND  MANUSCRIPTS 

I.     Runes:  general  literature 

Arnamagnaeanske  Haandskrift,  Det,  No.  28,  Codex  Runicus,  in  facsimile. 
Ed.    Kommissionen    for    det    Arnamagnaeanske    Legat.     Copenhagen, 

1877- 

Friesen,  O.  von.  Om  runskriftens  harkomst.  In  Sprakvetenskapliga  Sall- 
skapets  i  Uppsala  Forhandl.   1904-6.     Upsala,  1904. 

Grimm,  J.  Deutsche  Mythologie.  Gottingen,  1835.  4th  ed.  Meyer,  E.  H. 
3  vols.     Berlin,  1875.     Trans.  Stallybrass,  J.  S.     4  vols.      1882-8. 

Grimm,  W.     Uber  deutsche  Runen.     Gottingen,  182 1. 

Zur   Literatur   der  Runen.      Wiener  Jahrb.  der  Liter,  xliii.     Vienna, 

1828.      Reprinted  in  Schriften,  iii,  85  fif. 

Keary,  C.  F.  A  Catalogue  of  English  Coins  in  the  British  Museum,  Anglo- 
Saxon  Series.      2  vols.      1887. 

Kemble,  J.  M.  On  Anglo-Saxon  Runes.  Archaeologia,  xxviii  (1840),  pp. 
327  ff. 

Kirchhoff,  A.     Das  gothische   Runenalphabet.     2nd  ed.     Berlin,    1854. 

Liliencron,  R.  v.  and  Miillenhoff,  K.     Zur  Runenlehre.     Halle,  1852. 

Massmann,  H.  F.     Gotthica  minora.     Zeit.  f.  d.  Altert.  i  (1841). 

Montelius,  O.  Runornas  alder  i  Norden.  In  Svenska  Fornminnesforen- 
ingens  Tidskr.  vii,  236  ff.  Trans,  into  German  in  Archiv  fur  Anthro- 
pologic, xviii,  15 1  ff.     [As  to  the  age  of  runes.] 

dlsen,  Bj.  M.     Runerne  i  den  oldislandske  Literatur.     Copenhagen,  1883. 

vSaxo  Grammaticus:  Gesta  Danorum.  Ed.  Holder,  A.  Strassburg,  1886. 
Trans.  Elton,  O.      1894. 

Schroder,  E.     Uber  das  Spell.     ZDA.  xxxvii,  241  ff. 

Sievers,  E.      Runen  und  Runeninschriften.     In  Paul's  Grundriss,  i,  248  ff. 

Sijmons,  B.  Die  Lieder  der  Edda.  Halle, 1906.  The  Edda  has  been  trans, 
into  German  by  Gering,  H.,  Leipzig  and  Vienna,  no  date  [1892];  into 
English  by  Thorpe,  B.,  2  parts,  1865-6;  by  Magmisson,  E.  and  Morris,  W.. 
Volsunga  Saga,  1870,  2nd  ed.,  1888;  by  Vigfusson,  G.  and  Powell,  F. 
York,  Corpus  poeticum  boreale,  2  vols.,  Oxford,  1883. 

Stephens,  G.  The  Old  Northern  Runic  Monuments,  4  vols.  Copenhagen, 
1866-84. 

Handbook  of  the  Old  Northern  Runic  Monuments.  London  and  Copen- 
hagen, 1884. 

The  runes,  whence  came  they.     London  and  Copenhagen,  1894. 

Thorsen,  P.  G.  Om  runernes  Brug  til  Skrift  udenfor  det  Monumentale. 
Copenhagen,  1877. 


476  Bibliography  to 

Wimmer,  L.  F.  A.  Die  Runenschrift.  2nd  ed.  Transl.  by  F.  Holthausen. 
Berlin,  1887.  [Standard  work.]  See  further:  Losch,  F.,  Germania, 
XXXIV,  397  ff.;  Meyer,  R.  M.,  Paul  u.  Braune's  Beitr.  xxi,  162;  v.  Grien- 
berger,  Arkiv,  xiv,  loi  fif.,  xv,  i  fiE. ;  P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  xxi,  185  ff.;  ZDPh. 
XXXII,  302  ff.;  Hempl,  G.,  Phil.  Stud,  fur  Eduard  Sievers,  1896,  id.  The 
Journal  of  Germ.  Phil.  11,  No.  3,  p.  370  (1899). 

Zacher,  J.  Das  gotische  alphabet  Vulfilas  und  das  runenalphabet.  Leipzig, 
1855. 

II.     Runic  inscriptions  in  England 

Chadwick,  H.  Munro.     Early  Inscriptions  in  the  North  of  England.     [Trans- 
actions of  the  Yorkshire  Dialect  Society,  Part  iii,  May,  1901.]     Bradford. 
Haigh,  D.  H.     The  Conquest  of  Britain  by  the  Saxons,  pp.  37-41.      1861. 
Sweet,  H.     The  Oldest  English  Texts.     E.E.T.S.  lxxxiii,  pp.  124  ff.     1885. 
Vietor,  W.     Die  Northumbrischen  Runensteine.     Marburg,  1895. 

(a)     Ruthwell  Cross:  reproductions  and  text 

Anderson,  J.     Scotland  in  Early  Christian  Times.     2nd  series.     Edinburgh, 

1881. 
Anderson,  J.  and  Allen,  J.  R.     The  Early  Christian  Monuments  of  Scotland. 

Edinburgh,  1903. 
Cardonnell,  A.  de.     Vetusta  Monumenta.     Soc.  Ant.  Lond.  11,  plates  54,  55. 

1789. 
Cook,  A.  S.     Notes  on  the  Ruthwell  Cross.     MLA.     Vol.  xvii,  367  ff. 
Dietrich,  F.     Disputatio  de  Cruce  Ruthwellensi.     Marburg,  1865. 
Duncan,  H.     Archaeologia  Scotica.     Trans.  Soc.  Ant.  Scotland,  iv,  plate  13. 

Edinburgh,  1833. 
Gordon,  A.     Itinerarium  Septentrionale,  p.  160,  plates  57,  58.     1726, 
Hickes,  G.     Thesaurus,  i,  3,  plate  4.     Oxford,  1703-5. 

Kemble,  John.  Archaeologia,  xxviii,  349-357.  1840.  Cf.  Additional  Obser- 
vations on  the  Runic  Obelisk  at  Ruthwell,  ibid,  xxx,  pp.  31-46,  1843. 

Cf.  P.  A.  Munch,  Norsk  Literaturtidende,  Nos.   1-4,  Christiania,  1845.. 
[MacFarlan,  J.]     The  Ruthwell  Cross.     Edinburgh  and  London,   1885. 
Vietor,  W.     Die  Northumbrischen  Runensteine,  pp.  2-13.     Marburg,  1895. 
Wilson,  D.     Prehistoric  Annals  of  Scotland.     2  vols.     2nd  ed.  11,  319-329. 

Cambridge  and  London,  1863. 
Zupitza,  J.     Verse  vom  Kreuze  zu  Ruthwell.     In  his  Alt  und  Mittelenglisches 

tJbungsbuch,  7th  ed.,    1904. 

(b)     The  Bewcastle  Column:  reproductions  and  text 

Haigh,  D.  H.     Archaeologia  Aeliana.     N.  S.  i.      1857. 

Howard,  H.     Archaeologia,  xiv,  pp.  113  ff.      1801. 

Hutchinson,    W.     The    History   of   the    County   of    Cumberland.     2    vols. 

Carlisle.     1794- 
Lysons,  D.  L.  and  S.     Magna  Britannia.     Vol.  iv.     6  vols.     1806-22. 
Maughan,  J.     The  Maiden  Way.     Archaeol.  Journal,  xi,  pp.  103  ff.      1854. 

Memoir  on  the  Roman  Station  and  Runic  Cross  at  Bewcastle.     1857. 

Nicholson,  W.     Letter  written  in   1865,  in  Camden's  Britannia.     Ed.  by 

Gibson,  1695. 
Smith,  G.     The  Gentleman's  Magazine,  pp.  132,  318,  368  f.,  529.     1742. 


Chapter  II  477 

Stuart,  J.     Sculptured  Stones  of  Scotland.     2  vols.     Spalding  Club  Publ. 

Aberdeen,  1867. 
Vietor,  W.     Die  Northumbrischen  Runensteine,  pp.  13-16.     Marburg,  1895. 

(c)      The  Franks  Casket:  reproductions  and  text 

Bugge,  S.     Tidskrift  for  Philologi  og  Paedagogik,  viii,  302. 

Franks,  A.  W.     Memoir  on  the  Casket.     Archaeological  Journal,  xvi,  pp. 

391  ff.     1859. 
Gering,  H.     Zum  Clermonter  Runen-kastchen.     ZDPhil.  xxxiii,  140  ff. 
Grein,    C.    W.    M.   and   Wiilcker,    R.    P.     Bibliothek   der  Angelsachsischen 

Poesie,  pp.  281-3  (with  facsimile).     Cassel,  1SS3. 
Grienberger,  v.     Zu  den  Inschriften  des  Clermonter  Runenkastchens.     An- 

glia,  XXVII,  436-449.     Cf.  ZDPh.  xxxiii,  409-421. 
Haigh,  D.  H.     The  Conquest  of  Britain  by  the  Saxons,  pp.  42  ff.      1861. 
Hempl,  G.     The  variant  runes  on  the  Franks  Casket.     Boston,  1902. 
Hofmann,  K.     Uber  die  Clairmonter  Runen.     Sitzungsber.   der  kgl.  bayer. 

Akad.  der  Wissenschaften,  pp.  665  ff.     Miinchen,  1871. 
Napier,  A.  S.     The  Franks  Casket.     In  An  English  Miscellany,  presented  to 

Dr.  Furnivall,  pp.    362-381  (with  six  facsimiles).      Oxford,  1901. 
Sweet,  H.      Garsecg.      Engl.  Stud.  11,  414  ff.      Heilbronn,  1879. 
Vietor,  W.     Das  angelsachsische  Runenkastchen  aus  Auzon  bei  Clermont- 
Ferrand  (with  five  plates).      Marburg  a.  d.  Lahn,  1901. 
Wadstein,   E.     The  Clermont   Runic  Casket   (with  five  plates).     Almquist 

and  Wiksell,  Upsala,  1900. 

III.     The  Roman  alphabet  in  England  :  manuscripts  and  their  makers; 

EARLY   scriptoria    AND   LIBRARIES 

Amdt,  W.      (revised  by  H.  Bloch).     Lateinische  Schrift.     In  Paul's  Grund- 

riss.     2nd  ed.    i,  pp.  263-282.     Strassburg,  1901. 
Bateson,    M.     Catalogue    of   the    Library    of    Syon    Monastery,    Isleworth. 

Cambridge,  1898. 
Facsimiles  of  Ancient  Charters  in  the  British  Museum.     Ed.  E.  A.  Bond. 

4  parts.      1873-8. 

of  Anglo-Saxon  Manuscripts  (Ordnance  Survey).     Ed.  W.  B.  Saunders. 

3  parts.      Southampton,  iS 78-84. 
of  National  Manuscripts  of  England  (Ordnance    Survey).     Ed.  W.  B. 

Sanders.     4  parts.     Southampton,  1867-71. 
of  Ireland  (Ordnance    Survey).     Ed.  J.  T.  Gilbert.     4  parts  (in 

5  vols.).     Dublin  and  London,  1874-84. 

of  Scotland  (Ordnance  Survey).     Ed.  C.  Innes.     3  parts.     South- 


ampton, 1867-71. 
Gasquet,  F.  A.     Notes  on  Medieval  Monastic  Libraries,  Downside  Review, 

X,  pp.  87  ff.,  and  the  Old  English  Bible  and  other  Essays.      1897. 
The  Monastic  Scriptorium,  Downside  Review,  xi,  4  ff.,  and  The  Old 

English  Bible  and  other  Essays,  pp.  41  ff.      1897. 
Gottleib,  T.      Uber  Mittelalterliche  Bibliotheken.      Leipzig,  1890. 
Hunter,  Joseph.     English  Monastic  Libraries :  (i)  A  Catalogue  of  the  Library 

of  the  Priory  of  Bretton  in  Yorkshire;   (ii)    Notices  of  the  Libraries 

belonging  to  other  religious  houses.      1831. 
James,  M.  R.     The  Ancient  Libraries  of  Canterbury  and  Dover.     Cambridge. 

1903. 


478  Bibliography  to 

Karabacek,    J.     Das    arabische    Papier.     Mitteil.    aus    der    Sammlung    der 

Papyrus  Erzherzog   Raincr,   ii  and  iii.      Vienna,   1887.      Neue  Quellen 

zur  Papiergeschichte.      Ibid.  iv.      Vienna,  1888. 
Keller,  W.     Angelsachsische  Palacographie.     Die  Schrift  der  Angelsachsen, 

mit   besonderer    Riicksicht    auf    die    Denkmaler   in    der   Volkssprache. 

Berlin,  1907. 
Kenyon,  F.  G.      Facsimiles  of  Biblical  Manuscripts  in  the  Brit.  Mus.      1900. 
Kirchhoff,  A.      Die  Handschriftenhandlcr  des  Mittelalters.    2nd  ed.      Leipzig, 

1853- 

Omont,    H.   Anciens  Catalogues  des  Biblioth^ques  Anglaises.   Leipzig,  1892. 

Palaeographical  Society.  Facsimiles  of  MSS.  and  Inscriptions,  edd.  E.  A. 
Bond,  E.  M.  Thompson,  G.  F.  Warner.      1873-94. 

Skeat,  W.  W.     Twelve  Facsimiles  of  Old  English  MSS.     Oxford,  1892. 

The  New  Palaeographical  Society.  Facsimiles  of  Ancient  Manuscripts,  ed. 
E.  M.  Thompson,  G.  F.  Warner,  F.  G.  Kenyon.      1903-.     [In  progress.] 

Thompson,  Sir  E.  Maunde.  Handbook  of  Greek  and  Latin  Palaeography. 
2nd  ed.,  1894.  [With  a  list  of  the  principal  palaeographical  works  used, 
on  pp.  327  fi.] 

Wattenbach,  W.  Das  Schriftwesen  im  Mittelalter.  3rd  ed.  Leipzig, 
^896. 

Anleitung  zur  lateinischen  Palacographie.     4th  ed.     Leipzig,   1886. 

Westwood,  J.  O.      Palaeographia  Sacra  Pictoria.      1844. 

Facsimiles  of  the  Miniatures  and  Ornaments  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  Irish 

MSS.      1868. 

Wiesner,  Jul.  Die  Faijlamer  und  Uschmlineiner  Papiere.  Eine  naturwis- 
senschaftliche,  mit  Riicksicht  auf  die  Erkennung  alter  und  moderner 
Papiere  und  auf  die  Entwickelung  der  Papierbereitung  durchgefiihrte 
Untersuchung.  Mitteil.  aus  der  Sammlung  der  Papyrus  Erzherzog 
Rainer,  11  and  iii.  Vienna,  1887.  Cf.  eund.,  Studien  iiber  angelbiche 
Baumbastpapiere,  Sitzungsber.  der  Wiener  Akad.  1892. 

CHAPTER  IV 

OLD  ENGLISH  CHRISTIAN  POETRY 

Texts  and  full  bibliographies  will  be  found  in  Grein,  Wiilker  and  Korting. 
See  the  bibliography  to  Chapters  i  and  in,  ante,  for  standard  works  dealing 
also  with  the  contents  of  the  present  chapter,  and  for  abbreviations. 

A.     Caedmon   and  the  Caedmonian  Group 

MSS.  and  Sources 

AzARiAS,  in  Exeter  Book,  f?.  53^-5 s*"-  [The  Exeter  Book  is  a  MS.  preserved 
in  Exeter  cathedral  library,  the  gift  of  bishop  Leofric  about  107 1.  Its 
title  in  Old  English  is  "Mycel  Englisc  boc  be  gehwilcum  J'ingum  on 
leoS-wisan  gevv^orht"  ("A  large  English  book,  on  all  sorts  of  things, 
wrought  in  verse").  To  it  are  we  indebted  for  much  of  what  is  known 
concerning  Old  English  literature.  It  was  published  under  the  editor- 
ship of  B.  Thorpe,  in  1842  (Codex  Exoniensis,  text  and  translation), 
and  the  first  volume  of  a  new  edition  in  the  Early  English  Text  Society's 
publications  has  appeared,  edited  by  I.  Gollancz,  containing  the  first 
eight  poems  in  the  MS.  The  contents  of  the  MS.  are  as  follows:  Crist, 
Guthlac,  Azarias,  The   Phoenix,    Juliana,  The  Wanderer,  The   Gifts  of 


Chapter  IV  479 

Men,  A  Father's  Instruction,  The  Seafarer,  The  Spirit  of  Men,  Widsith, 
The  Fates  (or  Fortunes)  of  Men,  Gnomic  Verses,  The  Wonders  of 
Creation,  The  Riming  Song,  The  Panther,  The  Whale,  The  Partridge, 
The  Address  of  the  Soul  to  the  Body,  Deor,  Riddles  1-60,  The  Wife's 
Complaint,  The  Last  Judgment,  A  Prayer,  Christ's  Descent  into  Hell, 
Alms,  Pharaoh,  Paternoster  (fragment)  and  other  fragments  of  maxims, 
hymns,  etc..  Riddle  61  and  another  version  of  Riddle  31,  The  Husband's 
Message,  The  Ruin.  Riddles  62-89.] 

Genesis,  Exodus,  Daniel,  Crist  and  Satan,  in  Bodl.  Juinus  xi.  Old 
Saxon  fragments  in  Vatican  Library,  Palatinus  Latinus  N.  1447. 

HvMN,  in  Cambridge  University  Library,  Kk,  5,  16,  fol.  128.  (See  Facsimiles 
of  Ancient  MSS.,  ix,  edd.  Bond  and  Thompson,  1879.)  Printed  in  Wan- 
ley,  Catalogus  historico-criticus,  1705.  See  also  Bede,  Eccles.  Hist., 
E.  E.  T.  S.  ed.  Miller,  1890,  and  ed.  Holder,  A.,  Freiburg,  u.  Tubingen, 
1882. 

Authorilies 

(For  books  on  the  Ruthwell  Cross,  see  bibliography  to  Chapter  11.) 

Acta  Sanctorum,  11  February. 

Balg,  H.     Der  Dichter  Caedmon  un  seine  Werke.     Bonn,  1882. 

Bouterwek,  K.  W.     Caedmon's  des  Angelsachsen  biblische  Dichtungen.     2 

pts.     Elberfeld,  1851  and  Giitersloh,  1854. 

De  Caedmone  poeta  Anglo-Saxonum  vetustissimo.     Elberfeld,  1845. 

Ueber  Caedmon,  den  altesten  ags.   Dichter,    und    desselben    metrische 

Paraphrase   der  heiligen   Schrift.     Elberfeld,  1845. 
Cramer,  J.     Quelle,  Verfasser  und  Text  des  ae.  Gedichts  Christi  Hellenfahrt. 

Anglia,  xix,  135  ff. 
Dietrich,  F.     Emendations.     ZDA.  x,  310-367. 
Ebert,  A.     Genesis  and  Exodus.     Anglia,  v,  409,  410. 
Ellis,   H.     Introduction   to   reproductions  of  drawings  in  "Caedmon"  MS. 

Archaeologia,  xxiv. 
Ettmiiller,  L.     Handbuch  der  deutschen  Litteraturgeschichte.  Leipzig,  1847. 
Gotzinger,  E.      Ueber  die  Dichtungen  des  Angelsachsen  Caedmon  und  deren 

Verfasser.     Gottingen,  i860. 
Graz,  F.     Die  Metrik  der  sog.  Caedmon'schen  Dicht.     Berlin,  1894. 
Grein,  C.     Zur  Textkritik  der  angelsachsischen  Dichter.     Germania,  x,  41 7  fif. 
Groschopp,  F.     Das  angelsachsische  Gedicht  "Crist  und  Satan."     Anglia, 

VI,  248-276. 
Groth,  E.     Komposition  der  Altengl.  Exodus.     Gottingen,  1883. 
Hammerich,  F.     De  Episk-Kristelige  Old  Kvad.     Copenhagen,  1873.     Trans. 

by  Michelsen,  Giitersloh,  1874,  1888,  Aelteste  Christliche  Epik.  pp.  23-35. 
Hofer,  O.     Ueber  die  Entstehung  des  ags.  Gedichtes  Daniel.     Anglia,  xii, 

158. 
Holtmann.     On  Genesis.     Germania,  i,  470. 

Honncker,  F.     Studien  zur  ags.  Genesis.     Anglia,  vii,  469;  viii,  41. 
Hunt,  T.  W.     Exodus  and  Daniel.     Boston. 
Junius,   F.     Caedmonis  monachi  Paraphrasis  Poetica  Genesios  ac  praeci- 

puarum    sacrae    paginae    Historiarum,    abhinc    annos    m.lxx.    Anglo- 

Saxonice  conscripta,  et  nunc  primum  edita  a  Francisco  Junio,  F.  F. 

Amstelodami,  1655,  Oxford,  1752. 


480  Bibliography  to 

Junius,  F.     Observationes  in  Willerami  Abbatis,  Franciscan  Paraphrasin, 

Cantici  Canticorum.     Amsterdam,  1655. 
Kuhn,  A.     Ueber  die  ags.  gedichte  von  Christ  u.  Satan.     Jena,  1883. 
Lawrence,  J.     Codex  Junius  xi.     Anglia,  xii,  598. 
Muerkens,  G.     On  Exodus.     Bonner  Beitr.  z.  Anglistik,  11,  1899. 
Napier,  A.  S.     MLN.  1889. 

Paul,  H.     Grundriss  d.  German.  Phil.     2nd  ed.     3  vols.     Strassburg,  1901. 
Paul-Braune.     Beitr.  z.  gesch.  d.  deutsch  Spr.  u.  Litt. 
Rieger,  M.     ZDPh.  vii,  6.     On  Crist  and  Satan. 
Schipper,  J.     Zum  Codex  Exoniensis.     Germania,  xix,  331-4. 
Sievers,  E.     Der  Heliand  und  die  angelsachsische  Genesis.     Halle  a/S,  1875. 

Genesis,  Exodus,  Daniel,  Crist  and  Satan.     ZDA.  xv,  456  ff. 

In  P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  x,  xx. 

Skene,  W.  F.     Celtic  Scotland.     3  vols.     Edinburgh,  1876  flF. 
Stoddard,  F.  H.     The  Caedmon  poems  in  MS.  Junius  xi.     Anglia,  x.  156. 
Strobl,  J.     Zur  sog.  Caedmonschen  Exodus.     Germania,  xx,  292-305. 
Ten  Brink,  B.     Early  English  Literature,  and  .^pendix.     [See  also  p.  49, 

Vol.  I,  English  trans.,  1904,  for  early  works  on  the  theme  of  Christ  and 

Satan.] 
Thorpe,  B.     Caedmon's  Metrical  Paraphrase  of  Parts  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 

in  Anglo-Saxon;  with  an  English  translation.     Soc.  of  Antiquaries,  1832. 
Wiilker,  R.     Caedmon's  Hymn.     P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  iii,  348-357;  Anglia,  11, 

IV,  etc. 
Zangemeister,    K.    and   Braune,    W.     (Genesis,    etc.).     Neue    Heidelberger 

Jahrbiicher,  iv,  205. 
Ziegler,    H.      Der   poetische   Sprachgebrauch   in   d.    Caedmon'schen   Dich- 

tungen.     Miinster,  1883. 
Zupitza,  J.     Caedmon's  Hymn.     ZDA.  xxii,     210-223. 

B.     Cynewulf  and  his  School 
MSS.  and  Sources 

Crist,  Juliana,  Guthlac,  Phoenix,  Physiologus,  Riddles,  in  Exeter 
Book. 

Fates  of  the  Apostles,  Andreas,  Elene,  Dream  of  the  Rood,  in  Vercelli 
Book.  [The  Vercelli  Book  is  a  MS.  preserved  in  the  Capitular  library, 
Vercelli,  N.  Italy,  where  it  was  discovered  in  1822  by  F.  Blume.  It 
contains  Homilies,  Andreas,  Fates  of  the  Apostles,  Address  of  the  Soul 
to  the  Body,  Falseness  of  Men,  Dream  of  the  Rood,  Elene,  prose  life  of 
Guthlac,  and  was  written,  probably,  in  the  eleventh  century.  A  helio- 
type  reproduction  of  the  verse  was  produced  by  Wiilker  in  1894, 
Leipzig.  See  J.  M.  Kemble's  Poetry  of  the  Codex  Vercellensis,  with 
an  English  trans.,  2  pts.,  Aelfric  Soc.  1843,  1856,  and  Wiilker  in  Anglia, 
v.] 

Authorities 

Acta  Sanctorum,  11  April  (Guthlac),  3  May  (Elene). 

Baehrens,  A.     Poetae  Latini  Minores  (Riddles,  etc.).      Leipzig,  1879  ff. 
Blackburn,  F.  A.     Is  the  "Christ"  of  Cynewulf  a  single  poem?     Anglia, 
XIX,  89. 


Chapter  IV  481 

Bourauel,  J.     Zur  Quellcn-  vtnd  Verfasserfrage  von  Andreas,  Crist  u.  Fata. 

BBA.  XI.      1901. 
Bradley,  H.      (Riddles.)     Academy,  xxxiii,  197. 
Brooke,  Stopford  A.     Early  English  Literature,   1892.     [Contains  excellent 

trans,  of  Riddles,  etc.] 
Charitius,  F.     Ueber  die  angelsachsischen  Gedichte  vom  heiligen  Guthlac. 

Anglia,  ir,  265-308. 
Cook,  A.  S.     The  Crist  of  Cynewulf.     Boston,  1900. 
The  Dream  of  the  Rood.     Oxford,  1905.     [An  excellent  edition,  with  a 

thorough  discussion  of  the  evidence  of  authorship,  etc.] 
Cooper's  Report  on  Rymer's  Foedera,  Appendix  B   (B.  Thorpe),  pp.  47-92. 

(Fates  of  the  Apostles,  Andreas,  Dream  of  the  Rood.)      1836. 
Dietrich,  F.     Commentatio  de  Kynewulfi  poetae  aetate.     Marburg,  1859. 

Cynewulf's  Crist.     ZDA.  ix,  193-214. 

Die  Ratsel  des  Exeterbuches.     ZDA.  xi,  448,  xii,  232. 

Ebert's  Jahrbuch  f.  romanische  und  englische  Literatur.     Berlin,  1859. 

I,  241—246. 
Ebert,  A.     Der  angelsSchsische  Physiologus.     Anglia,  vi,  241-247. 
Der    Traum    vom   heiligen  Kreuz,   Berichte  der  kgl.   Gesellschaft  der 

Wissenschaften,  18  Mai,  1884,  81  ff. 
Die  Ratselpoesie  der  Angelsachsen,  Berichte  der  k.  sachsischen  Gesell- 
schaft der  Wissenschaften,  April,  1877,  pp.  30-56. 
Forstmann,  H.     Zur  Guthlac-Legende.      BBA.  xii.      1902. 
Fritzsche,  A.     Das  angelsachsische  Gedicht  Andreas  und  der  Dichter  Cyne- 
wulf.    Anglia,  11,  441-496. 
Gabler,  Herm.     Ueber  die  Autorschaft  der  angelsachsischen  Gedichtes  vom 

Phoenix.     Anglia,  iii,  488-526. 
Garnett,  J.  M.     Translations,  etc.     Boston,  190 1. 

Glode,  O.     Cynewulf's  Elene,  etc.      Rostock,  1885.     See  also  Anglia,  ix. 
Gollancz,    I.     Cynewulf's   Crist.     1892.     See   also   same    vol.   for   Guthlac, 

Gnomic  verses,  etc. 
Grein,  C.  W.  M.     Der  Vogel  Phonix.     Rinteln,  1854. 

Dichtungen  der  Angelsachsen.      2  vols.     Gottingen,  1857  if. 

Kurzgefasste  angelsachsische  Grammatik,  pp.  11-15.      1880. 

— — Zu  den  Ratseln  des  Exeterbuchs.     Germania,  x,  307-310. 

Zur  Textkritik   der  angelsachsischen   Dichter.     Germania,    x,    420   ff. 

Grimm,  Jakob.     Andreas  and  Elene.      Kassel,  1840.     [A  valuable  edition.] 
Grundtvig,  N.  F.  S.     Phenix-Fuglen.      Copenhagen,  1840.      See  also  Archaeo- 

logia,  XXX. 
Holt,  L.  H.     Elene.     (Translated.)     Yale  Studies  in  English.      1904. 
Holthausen,  F.     Elene.     Heidelberg,  1905. 
Kent,  C.  W.     Teutonic  Antiquities  in  Andreas  and  Elene.     Leipzig,  1887. 

Elene.     Boston,  1889. 

Klipstein,  L.  F.     Analecta  Anglo-Saxonica.     2  vols.     New  York,  1849. 
Krapp,  G.   P.     Andreas  and  Fates  of  the  Apostles.     Boston,    1906.     [An 

excellent  edition.] 
Land,  J.  P.  N.     Art.  in  Enc-Brit.  on  "  Physiologus." 
Lauchert,  F.     Geschichte  des  Physiologus.     Strassburg,  1890. 
Lefevre,  P.     Das  altenglische  Gedicht  vom  Guthlac.     Anglia,  vi,  181-240. 
Leo,  H.     Quae  de  se  ipso  Cynevulfus,  sive    Cenevulfus,  sive    Coenevulfus, 

poeta  Anglo-Saxonicus  tradiderit.     Halle,  1857. 
Mann,  M.  F.     Zur  Bibliographic  des  Physiologus.     Anglia,  Beiblatt,  x,  274, 

XII,  13,  xni,  18.     See  also  Jellinek,  A.  L.,  Anglia,  Beiblatt,  xiii,  236. 

VOL.  I. 31 


4^-  Bibliography  to 

Mather,  F.  J.     The  Cynewulf  Question  from  a  metrical  point  of  view.     MLN. 

1892,  pp.  193  flf. 
Muller,  Ed.      Die  Ratsel  des  Exeterbuches.      Programm.     Cothen,  1861. 
Muller,  S.      Die  Thierornamentik  im  Norden.      Hamburg,   1881. 
Napier,  A.     Academy,  Sept.  8,  1888,  and  ZDA.  xxxiii,  pp.  60  ff.  (on  "Fata 

Apostolorum  "). 
Prehn,   A.     Komposition  und  Quellen  der   Ratsel  des  Exeterbuches,  Neu- 

philologische  Studien,  Heft.  3.      Paderborn,   1883. 
Ramhorst,  F.     Andreas.     Leipzig,  1886. 
Rieger,  M.      Uber  Cynewulf.      Zacher's  ZDPh.  i,  133,  etc. 
Root,  R.  K.      Andreas  (trans.).      Yale  Studies  in  English.      1S99. 
Sarrazin,   G.      Beowulf   und    Kynewulf.      Anglia,    ix,   pp.    515  fJ.     See   also 

Anglia,  Beiblatt,  vi,  205,  Anglia,  xii,  375. 

Beowulfstudien,  pp,  109  fl.      Berlin,  188S. 

Schipper,  J.      Zum  Codex  Exoniensis.      Germania,  xix,  329  f. 
Sievers,  E.     Zu  Cynewulf.     Anglia,  xiii,  i  flf. 

In  P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  x. 

Stevens,  W.  O.     The  Cross  in  the  Life  and  Literature  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

1904.      Yale  Studies  in  English. 
Strunk,  W.     Juliana.     Belles  Lettres  Series.     Boston,  1905. 
Swaen,  A.  E.  H.     Notes  on  Cynewulf 's  Elene.     Anglia,  xvii,  123. 
Sweet,  H.     Oldest  English  Texts.     E.E.T.S.      1885. 
Tatwin's  Riddles.      See  Wright,  Anglo-Norman  Poets,  Rolls  Series,  iii. 
Ten  Brink,  B.     Discussion  of  Zupitza's  edition  of  Elene.     ZDA.  xxiii  (N.F. 

XI)  53-70- 

Early  English  Literature,  see  above. 

Trautmann,  M.     Der  Andreas  doch  von  Cynewulf.     Anglia,  Beiblatt,  vi,  17 

fjE.,  and  later  vols. 

Kynewulf  der  Bischof  und  Dichter.      Bonn,  1898. 

Windisch,  W.  O.  E.     Der  Heliand  und  seine  Quellen.     Leipzig,  1868. 
Wiilker,  R.     Der  Dichter  Cynewulf  und  das  Andreasgedicht,  Berichter  der 

kgl.  sachs.  Gesellschaft  der  Wissenschaft,  14  Nov.  1888,  pp.  209  ff. 
Wiilker,  R.     Ueber  den  Dichter  Cynewulf.     Anglia,  i,  483-507.       See  also 

many  later  contributions  to  Anglia. 
Zupitza,  J.     Cynewulf's  Elene.     2nd  ed.  Berlin,   1883.    See  also,  on  Andreas, 

ZDA.  XXX  (N.F.  xviii),  175. 

C.     Miscellaneous  Poems 
MSS.  and  Sources 

Gnomic  Poetry,  etc.,  in  Brit.  Mus.  Cott.  Tib.  B.  i  and  Exeter  Book. 

Salomon  and  Saturn.  A,  in  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge,  422;  B, 
C.C.C.C,  41.  Cf.  Old  EngUsh  prose  version  BM.  Cott.  Vitell.  A.  xv, 
and  Adrian  and  Ritheus  in  Cott.  Jul.  A.  2,  edited,  respectively,  by 
Thorpe  (Analecta)  and  Kemble;  also  Wright,  T.  in  Altdeut.  Blat., 
1837-40. 

Authorities 

Atkinson,    R.     The  Passions  and   the    Homilies   from   the    Leabhar   Breac 

(Address  of  Soul  to  Body).      Dublin,  1887. 
Batiouchkof,  T.      Romania,  xx.      (Soul  and  Body  Legend.) 


Chapter  V  483 

Botkine,  L.     La  Chanson  des  Runes.     Havre,  1879. 

Duff,  E.  G.     Dialogus,  or  Communing  between  the  Wise  King  Salomon  and 

Marcolphus.      1892. 
Grein,  Chr.      Das  ReimHed  des  Exeterbuches.      Germania,  x,  305-7. 
Grimm,  J.      Heidelberger  Jahrbiicher,   1809.  Heft.  45.      [Discussion  of  v.  d. 

Hagen.] 
V.  d.  Hagen,  F.  H.      In    Einleitung   zur  Ausgabe  der  Salomon  und  Morolf; 

V.  d.  Hagen  und  Biischings  deutsche  Gedichte  des  Mittelalters.     Vol.  i. 

Berlin,  1808. 
Hickes,  G.      Linguarum  Septentrionalium  Thesaurus.     Oxford,   1705.      For 

Rune  Song,  etc. 
Hofmann,  C.      Ueber  Jourdain  de  Blaivies,  ApoUonius  von  Tyrus,   Salomo 

und  Markulf.      Sitzungsberichte   der  Miinchener  Akademie,   phil.    hist. 

Klasse.      1870. 
Kemble,  J.      The  Dialogue  of  Salomon  and  Saturnus.      Aelfric  Society,  1848. 
Kleinert,  G.     Ueber  den  Streit  zwischen  Leib  und  Seele.      Halle,  1880. 
MacCallum,    M.    W.      Solomon   in   Europe,   and   Anglo-Saxon   Jocoseria,    in 

Studies  in  Low  German  and  High  German  Lit.      1884.     [An  excellent 

piece  of  work.] 
Rieger,  M.     Addresses  of  Soul  and  Body.     Germania,  in,  398,  390. 

ZDPh.  I,  331-4. 

Schaumberg,  W.    Untersuchungen  iiber  das  deutsche  Spruchgedicht :  Salomo 

und  Morolf.      P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  11,  1-63. 
Schipper,  J.     Salomon  and  Saturn.     A  Comparison  of  MS.  A.  with  MS.  B. 

Germania,  xxii,  50-70. 
Sievers,  E.     Collationen  Angelsach.  Gedichte.     ZDA.  xv,  466. 
Strobl,  J.     ZDA.  xxxi,  54-64- 

Sweet,  H.     Salomon  and  Saturn.     Collation  of  MS  A.     Anglia,  i,  150-4. 
Varnhagen,  H.      Addresses  of  Soul  and  Body.      Anglia,  11,  225  ff. 
Vogt,  F.      Die  deutschen  Dichtungen  vot;  Salomon  und  Markolf.      i,  liii-lv. 
Wright,    T.     Poems  of   Walter   Mapes.     Camden   Soc.     See   Appendix  for 

literature  of  Address  of  Soul  to  Body. 
Zupitza,  J.      On  Salomon,  etc.      Anglia,  iii,  527. 

•  AngHa,  i,  285,  and  ZDA.  xxxi,  45. 

(See  also  works  of  a  general  nature  under  Cynewulf,  above.) 

CHAPTER    V 
LATIN  WRITINGS  IN  ENGLAND  TO  THE  TIME  OF  ALFRED 

General    Authorities 

Acta  Sanctorum. 

Acta  Sanctorum  Ordinis  S.  Benedicti  (Mabillon). 

Annales  Ord.  S.  Benedicti  (Mabillon). 

Cave,  Wm.     Script.  Eccles.  Hist.  Lit.    1688,  1698. 

Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography. 

Patrologiae  Cursus  Completus  (Migne). 

Adamnan  (625? — 704),  abbot  of  lona. 

[His  Life  of  St.  Columba  is  of  great  importance  in  the  history  of  the  church 
ifi  Scotland.  The  best  edition  is  that  of  Reeves,  W.,  Dubhn,  1857,  new 
ed.  Fowler,  Oxford,  1894.     See  also  ed.  Forbes,  A.  P.  and  Skene,  W.  F., 


4^4  Bibliography  to 

1874,  Edinburgh.  For  Adamnan's  Travels  of  Arculfus,  a  very  early- 
narrative  of  travel  in  Palestine,  see  Acts  of  the  Benedictine  Saints  and 
Wright,  T.,  Early  Travels  in  Palestine,  1848,  which  also  contains  ac- 
counts of  the  travels  of  Willibald,  Bernard,  Saewulf,  Sigurd,  Benjamin 
of  Tudela,  Sir  John  Maundeville,  De  la  Brocquiere  and  Maundrell.  The 
"Vision"  that  goes  by  the  name  of  Adam  nan  may  be  compared  with 
other  visions  referred  to  by  Bede  and  similar  medieval  records.] 
Alcuin.  Ed.  Frobenius.  Ratisbon,  1877.  Also  in  Migne's  Patrologia,  c-ci. 
Letters,  ed.  Schiitze,  H.      1879. 

Ebert's  Allgem.  Gesch.  d.  Litt.  des  Mittelalters  in  Abendlande,  11. 

Gaskoin,  C.  J.  B.      Alcuin:  his  life  and  work.      1904. 

Jaffe's  Monumenta  Alcuiniana.     Berlin,  1873. 

Lorenz,    F.     Alcuin's  Leben.     Halle,    1829.     Trans,   by  Slee,   J.    M. 

1837- 
MuUinger,  J.  B.     The  Schools  of  Charles  the  Great.      1877. 
Raine,  J.     Historians  of  the  Church  of  York.      Rolls  Series.      1879  fY. 
Sandys,  J.  E.    A  History  of  Classical  Scholarship.     2nd  ed.  Cambridge, 

1907. 
West,  A.  F.     Alcuin.      1892. 
Aldhelm.      Ed.  Giles,  J.  A.      Patres  Eccles.  Angl.      Oxford,   1844.      Also  in 
Migne,   Patrologia,   lxxxix.      For  Faricius's  life  of  Aldhelm  see  Giles, 
Migne,  and  Acta  Sanctorum  6  May.      See  also  Capgrave's  Nova  Legenda 
Angliae,  1516. 

Baehrens,  A.      Poetae  Latini  Minores.      Leipzig,  1879-83  (for  Riddles). 
Bucheler,  F.    and  Riese,  A.     Anthologia  Latina.     Leipzig,  1894  (foi 

Riddles). 

Manitius,  M.     Aldhelm  und  Baeda.     Sitzungsb.  d.  Wien.  Akad.  1886. 

Norden,  E.      Die  antike  Kun.stprosa  vom  vi  Jahrhundert  v.  Chr.  bis  in 

die  Zeit  der  Renaissance.      Leipzig,  1898. 

Bede.     In  Migne's  Patrologia,  xc-xcv.     Early  folio  editions  were  published 

at  Paris  (1544-5),  Basel  (1563),  etc.      Ed. Giles,  J.  A.      12  vols.       1843-4. 

See  Wright's  Biogr.  Brit.  Lit.  and  Notes  and  Queries,  4th  Ser.  ix,  x 

and  xii.     The  MS.  containing  Cuthbert's  letter  and  the  11.  of  O.E.  verse 

quoted  as  Bedc's  is  at  St.  Gall. 

Bede.    Historia  Ecclesiastica  Gentis  Anglorum.    MSS.,  Cambridge  University 

Library  (Moore)  Kk.  5.  16  and  Brit.  Mus.      First  published?  Strassburg, 

c.  1473,  Eggesteyn,  H.;  1550,  Antwerp,  Gravius,  etc.;  in  England  edd. 

Wheloc,  A.,  Cambridge,  1643-4;  Smith,  J.,  Cambridge,  1722;  Moberley, 

G.  H.,  Oxford,  1881;  Bks.  in  and  iv  Mayor,  J.  E.  B.  and  Lumby,  J.  R., 

Cambridge,  1878.     Trans,  by  Stapleton,  T.,  Antwerp,  1565;  Giles,  J.  A., 

1840.     See  also  bibliography  to  Chapter  vi  for  the  Old  English  version. 

[Bede's  account  of  the  visit  of  Drythelm  to  the  underworld  gives  a  vivid 

picture  of  the  medieval  conception  of  hell  and  purgatory  and  holds 

a    substantial   place    in    the    "vision    literature"    of    Old   and    Middle 

English.] 

Opera  Historica.     Ed.   Stevenson,  J.,   Eng.   Hist.   Soc,    1838-41;  ed. 

Plummer,  C,  Oxford,  1896.      See  also  Fuller's  Worthies,  and  Ozanam, 
A.  F.,  La  Civ.  Chret.  chez  les  Francs,  Paris,  1849. 
Bookof  Cerne.     Ed.  Kuypers,  A.  B.     Cambridge,  1902. 

Dicuil  (fl.  825).  Author  of  an  early  geography.  Liber  de  Mensura  orb  is 
terrae,  printed  by  Walckenaer,  C.  A.,  Paris,  1807;  Letronne,  A.,* Paris, 
1814  and  Parthey,  G.,  Berlin,  1870. 


Chapter   V  48; 


► 


Eddi  or  Eddius  Stephanus  (fl.  669).  For  the  Life  of  St.  Wilfrid,  see  Mabil- 
lon's  Acta  Sanctorum  Ord.  S.  Benedicti,  Gale's  Historiae  britannicae 
saxonicae,  anglo-danicae  Scriptores,  Oxford,  1691  and  Raine's  Historians 
of  the  Church  of  York,  Rolls  Series.  There  is  a  tenth  century  metrical 
version  of  the  life  by  Frithegode  (fl.  950)  a  monk  of  Canterbury. 

Erigena,  Joannes  Scotus  or  (fl.  850).  A  consideration  of  the  philosophical 
writings  of  Erigena  is  outside  the  scope  of  the  present  volume.  The 
reader  may  be  referred  to  William  of  Malmesbury,  to  Ebert's  Allgem. 
Gesch.  d.  Litt.  des  Mittelalters  im  Abendlande,  to  Poole's  Illustrations 
of  the  History  of  Medieval  Thought  (1884),  to  the  professed  histories  of 
philosophy  and  to  later  volumes  of  the  present  work  wherein  philo- 
sophical writings  are  discussed.  Erigena  has  been  held  to  be  a  precursor 
of  scholasticism,  and  "  in  some  respects  he  may  be  accounted  the  herald 
of  the  movement  of  the  eleventh  century,  but  in  more  he  is  the  last 
prophet  of  a  philosophy  belonging  to  earlier  ages"  (Poole,  D.  of  N.  B.). 
"His  great  work  on  The  Division  of  Nature  has  been  appreciated  as  the 
one  purely  philosophical  argument  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  was  called  in 
by  Hincmar  of  Rheims  to  strengthen  the  right  cause  against  Gottscalc. 
They  wanted  a  skilled  apologist;  they  found  one  whose  help,  like  that  of 
the  magic  sword  in  certain  fairy  tales,  might  be  dangerous  for  the  side 
that  used  it.  They  asked  him  to  oppose  the  excessive  cruelties  of  pre- 
destination, as  maintained  by  Gottscalc.  But  he  would  not  be  limited 
to  the  requisite  amount  of  controversy,  and  before  the  Irish  philosopher 
could  be  checked,  he  had  refuted  Sin  and  Hell.  Neo-Platonist  he  is 
called,  but  in  his  case  the  name  does  not  stand  for  eclectic  oriental  work ; 
his  mind  is  as  clear  as  Berkeley's,  with  a  vastly  greater  and  more  articu- 
late system  to  explain  and  develop.  For  literature,  the  merit  of  his 
writing  is  that  it  expresses  his  meaning  without  hurry  or  confusion,  and 
that  his  meaning,  whatever  its  philosophical  value,  is  certainly  no  weak 
repetition  of  commonplaces"  (Ker,  The  Dark  Ages,  p.  162).  For  Eri- 
gena's  works,  see  Migne's  Patrologia  and  L.  Traube's  edition  of  the  poems 
in  Poetae  Latini  aevi  Carolini,  Mon.  Germ.  Hist.,  1896. 

Ethelwulf's  Latin  poem  on  Crayke  (?).  See  Mabillon,  Acts  of  Benedictine 
Saints. 

Felix  of  Croyland's  Life  of  St.  Guthlac.  See  Acta  Sanctorum,  11  April,  etc. 
For  the  Old  English  lives,  see  Chapter  iv.  In  addition  to  the  Exeter 
Book  Guthlac,  there  are  prose  Old  English  lives  of  the  saint  in  the  Ver- 
celli  Book  and  in  Brit.  Mus.  Cott.  Vesp.  D.  xxi.  See  ed.  Goodwin, 
C.  W.,  1848. 

Gildas.  "The  copies  which  remain  are  few.  A  partially  burnt  manuscript 
(Cott.  Vitellius  A.  vi)  of  the  eleventh  century  is  the  primary  authority. 
It  is  fairly  well  represented  by  the  early  printed  editions :  better  by  that 
of  John  Joscelin  (1568)  than  by  that  of  Polydore  Vergil  (1525).  Of  two 
in  the  Cambridge  University  Library,  one,  which  belonged  to  Glaston- 
bury, is  not  independent  of  the  Cottonian:  the  other,  from  Salley  Abbey, 
contains  only  the  first  part.  Thomas  Gale,  who  edited  Gildas  in  1691, 
followed  this  copy  so  far  as  it  goes;  and  to  his  edition  we  owe  the  com- 
mon but  erroneous  division  of  the  work  into  two  parts.  Epistle  (chap- 
ters 1-26)  and  History  (27-110).  The  next  oldest  manuscript  to  the 
Cottonian  is  one  formerly  at  Mont  St.  Michel  and  now  at  Avranches:  it 
is  of  the  twelfth  century  and  very  probably  had  some  Breton  ancestor" 
(M.  R.  James).     Edd.  Stevenson,  J.,  Eng.  Hist.  Soc,   1838  (together 


4^6  Bibliography  to 

with  the  Life,  ascribed  to  Caradog  of  Llancarvan)  ;  Hardy,  T.,  Mon.  Hist. 
Brit.,  1848;  Williams,  H.,  Cymmrodorion  Records,  1899-1901 ;  Mommsen, 
Mon.  Germ.,  1894 ;  trans.  Habington,  T.,  1638  and  Giles,  J.  A.,  in  Six  Old 
English  Chronicles,  1848  (Asser's  Alfred,  Ethelwerd's  Chronicles,  Gildas, 
Nennius,  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  and  Richard  of  Cirencester).  See  also 
Skene,  Four  Ancient  Books  of  Wales,  de  la  Borderie,  A.,  in  Revue  Celtique 
VI  and  Wright's  Biogr.  Brit.  Lit. 

Hisperica  Famina.  Ed.  Stowasser,  Vienna,  1887;  ed.  Jenkinson,  Cambridge 
(in  preparation).  See  also  Bradshaw,  H.,  Collected  papers,  Cambridge, 
1889,  Ker,  W.  P.,  The  Dark  Ages  and  Zimmer,  H.,  in  Gottingische 
Nachrichten,  1895. 

Nennius.  "The  oldest  copy  of  the  Historia  Britonum  (incomplete,  and  not 
offering  the  best  text)  is  one  of  the  ninth  or  tenth  century  at  Chartres. 
The  best  are  a  Harleian  manuscript  (No.  3859)  of  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  century  and  a  Cottonian  (Vespasian  D.  xxi)  of  the  twelfth. 
A  Durham  copy,  one  at  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge  (No.  139)  and 
another  in  the  University  Library  at  Cambridge  (Ff.  i.  27),  which  con- 
tains two  copies  of  the  bulk,  under  the  names  of  Nennius  and  Gildas 
respectively,  are  also  important.  The  first  printed  edition  was  that  of 
Thomas  Gale  in  1691  "  (M.  R.  James).  Edd.  Stevenson,  J.,  Eng.  Hist. 
Soc,  1838;  Hardy,  T.,  Mon.  Hist.  Brit.;  Mommsen,  T.,  Mon.  Germ., 
1894;  trans.  Giles,  J.  A.  (see  above).  See  also  de  la  Borderie,  A.,  L'Hist. 
Brit,  attrib.  a  N.,  Paris,  1883;  Zimmer,  H.,  Nennius  Vindicatus,  Berlin, 
1893 ;  and  Mommsen  in  Neues  Archiv.  d.  Gesell.  xix. 

St.  Boniface.     Opera  Omnia.     Ed.  Giles,  J.  A.      1844. 

Dummler.     Poetae  Latini  aevi  Carolini.     Mon.  Germ.  Hist.      1880  ff. 
Jatfe.     Mon.  Moguntina.     Bibl.  Rerum  Germ.      1866. 

St.  Columba.  In  addition  to  Adamnan's  Life  (see  above),  see  also  Manus 
O'Donnell's  MS.  concerning  Columba,  Bodl.  Rawl.  B.  514. 

St.  Columban  (543-615).  See  Patrick  Fleming's  Collectanea  Sacra,  Augs- 
burg, 1 62 1. 

St.  Cuthbert.  For  the  life  by  the  Lindisfarne  monk,  etc.,  see  Acta  Sanc- 
torum, 20  March. 

St.  Patrick  (373-463).  See  the  Tripartite  Life,  Rolls  Series,  ed.  Whitley 
Stokes;  Lives  of  the  Saints  from  the  Book  of  Lismore,  ed.  Whitley 
Stokes,  Oxford,   1889;   lives  by  Todd,  J.   H.,    1863   and  Bury,  J.    B., 

1905- 
Tatwin.     Riddles,  MS.  Brit.  Mus.  Reg.  12,  cxxiii.     See  Giles,  J.  A.,  Anec- 

dotae  Bedae,  Lanfranci  et  aliorum,  Caxton  Soc,  1851  and  Wright,  T., 

Anglo-Norman  Poets,  Rolls  Series. 
Willibald  (700  ?-786),  nephew  of  St.  Boniface,  bishop  and  pilgrim  to  Palestine. 

For  the  record  of  his  travels,   see   Mabillon,   Acta   SS.   O.   Benedicti; 

Wright,  T.,  Early  Travels  in  Palestine  (see  above);  and  Beazley,  C.  R., 

Dawn  of  Modem  Geography,  1897.     See  also  Giles,  J.  A.,  Vita  Quorun- 

dam  Anglo-Saxonum,  Caxton  Soc,  1854. 

The  writings  of  Isidore  of  Seville,  referred  to  on  pp.  71,  75,  80,  etc.  can 
be  most  easily  consulted  in  Migne's  Patrologia,  lxxxi-lxxxvi.  See  also 
Sandys'  Classical  Scholarship,  i,  for  brief  particulars  of  the  Origines,  "which 
gathered  up  for  the  Middle  Ages  much  of  the  learning  of  the  ancient 
world." 

A.  R.  W. 


Chapter  VI  487 

CI-I AFTER  VI 

ALFRED  AND  THE  OLD  ENGLISH  PROSE  OF  HIS  REIGN 

MSS.   OF  Alfred's  Works  and  of  Works  connected   with   his     Name 

Bede's  Ecclesiastical   History 

(o)  Tanner  10,  Bodl.  (6)  Corpus  Christi  College  41,  Cambridge,  (c)  Otho 
B.  XI,  Brit.  Mus.  (d)  Corpus  Christi  College  279,  Oxford,  (e)  Cambridge 
University  Library  Kk.  3.  18. 

Boethius's  Consolation  of  Philosophy 

(a)  Cotton  Otho  A.  vi,  Brit.  Mus.  [Mefra  in  verse],  (b)  Bodl.  MS.,  180, 
Oxford  [Metro  in  prose],  (c)  Fragment  forming  the  last  leaf  of  Bodl.  MS., 
86.     (See  Napier  in  ZDA.,  N.F.  xix,  52.) 

Gregory's    Dialogues 

(a)  Cotton  Otho  C.  i.  (b)  Corpus  Christi  College  S.  10,  Cambridge^ 
(c)  Hatton  76,  Oxford.      (d\e)  Transcript  Jun.  46  and  52. 

Gregory's    Pastoral   Care 

(a)  Hatton  20,  Bodl.  (b)  Cotton  Tiberius  B.  xi,  Brit.  Mus.  (c)  Junius 
53,  Bodl.  (d)  Cotton  Otho  B.  11,  Brit.  Mus.  (e)  Three  MSS.  at  Cambridge, 
in  Corpus  Christi,  Trinity  and  the  University  Library.  [There  also  appears 
to  be  a  leaf  at  Cassel.      (See  Ten  Brink,  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  Eng.  Trans,  i,  p.  84).] 

The  Laws 

(a)  Corpus  Christi  College  383,  Cambridge,  (b)  Corpus  Christi  College 
173,  Cambridge,  (c)  Cotton  Nero  E.  i,  Harl.  55,  etc.,  Brit.  Mus.  (d)  MS. 
Textus  Roffensis.      (e)  Bodl.,  etc.      (See  Liebermann  for  complete  list.) 

The   Alartyrology 

(a)  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MS.  232 11.      {b)  Three  Younger  MSS. 

Orosius's  History  of  the  World 

(a)  Lauderdale-ToUemache  [Helmingham,  Suffolk].  (6)  Cotton  Tiberius 
B.  I.  (c)  Transcript  of  Cotton  by  Junius,  (jd)  Transcripts  of  Junius  by 
Elstob  and  Ballard. 

St.   Augustine's  Soliloquies 

(a)  Cotton  Vitell.  A.  15,  Brit.  Mus.      (Beowulf  MS.).      (&)  Transcript  of 
above  by  Junius,  Jun.  70.  i,  Oxiord. 
[For  the  Old  English  Chronicle  see  bibliography  to  the  following  Chapter.] 

Psalms  ascribed  to  Alfred 
MS.     Bibl.  Nat.  Paris,  Latin  8824 

Editions  of  Alfred's  Works  and  of  Works  connected  with 

HIS   Name 

Complete  Works 

The  Whole  Works  of  King  Alfred  the  Great.     Ed.   Giles,   J.   A.     Jubilee 
Edition.      3  vols.      Oxford  and  Cambridge,  185S. 


488  Bibliography  to 

Bede's   Ecclesiastical   History 

Miller,  T.  The  Old  English  Version  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History.  2  parts. 
E.E.T.S.      1890-8. 

Schipper,  J.  Konig  Alfreds  Uebersetzung  von  Bedas  Kirchengeschichte 
[Bibliothek  der  angelsachsischen  Prosa,  Bd.  4].  Cassel  and  Gottingen 
1897. 

Smith,  J.  Historiae  ecclesiasticae  Gentis  Anglorum  libri  quinque.  Cam- 
bridge, 1722.     [The  Old  English  version  begins  on  p.  471.] 

Wheloc,  A.  Historiae  Ecclesiasticae  Gentis  Anglorum  Libri  v.  Cambridge, 
1643-4. 

Boethius's  Consolation  of  Philosophy 

Cardale,  J.  S.     King  Alfred's  Anglo-Saxon  Version  of  Boethius  de  Consola- 

tione  Philosophiae :  with  an  English  Trans.      1829. 
Fox,   S.      King  Alfred's  Anglo-Saxon  Version  of  Boethius:  with  a  Literal 

English  Trans.,  etc.      1864. 
Rawlinson,  C.      An  Manl.  Sever.  Boethi  Consolationis  Philosophiae  Libri  v. 

Anglo-Saxonice  redditi  ab  Alfredo  inclyto  Anglo-Saxonum  rege.  Oxford, 

1698. 
Sedgefield,  W.  J.     King  Alfred's  Old  English  Version  of  Boethius  de  Con- 

solatione  Philosophiae.      Oxford,  1899. 

Gregory's  Dialogues 

Hecht,  H.  In  Grein-Wulker's  Bibliothek  der  angelsachsischen  Prosa.  Vol.  v. 
Cassel  and  Gottingen,  1900. 

Gregory's  Pastoral  Care 

Sweet,  H.  King  Alfred's  West  Saxon  Version  of  Gregory's  Pastoral  Care. 
English  trans.,  Latin  Text,  etc.  E.E.T.S.  1871.  (See  also  M.  Parker's 
edition  of  Asser,  1574  ) 

The  Laws 

Cook,  A.  S.     Extracts  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  Laws.     New  York,  1880. 

Birch,  De  Gray.      Cartularium  Saxonicum.      1885  fif. 

Earle,  J.      A  Handbook  to  the  Land  Charters  and  other  Saxonic  documents. 

Oxford,  1888. 
Kemble,  J.  M.     Codex  Diplomaticus  Aevi  Saxonici.      Eng.  Hist.  Soc       6  vols. 

1839  flf. 
Lambard,  G.     ' Apxcciovoi^iia,  sive  de  priscis  Anglorum  legibus  libri,  scrmone 

anglico,  vetustate  antiquissimo.      1568.     [First  printed  edition.] 
Liebermann,  F.     Gesetze  der  Angelsachsen  (text  and  trans.).     Halle,  1898 

ff.     [By  far  the  ablest  work  on  the  subject.] 
Schmid,  R.      Die  Gesetze  der  Angelsachsen.      In  der  Ursprache  mit  Ueber- 
setzung und  Erlauterung.      i.  Teil,  den  Text  nebst  Uebersetzung  enthal- 

tend.      Leipzig,  1832,  1858. 
Thorpe,   B.     Ancient  Laws  and   Institutes  of  England   (text  and  trans.). 

2  vols.      1840. 
Turk,  M.  H.      The  Legal  Code  of  Alfred  the  Great.      Boston,  1893. 
Wilkins,    D.      Concilia   Magnae    Britanniae   et   Hiberniae,    a   Synodo   Vero- 

lamiensi  A.D.      ccccxi-vi  ad  Londinensem  a.d.      mdccxvii.       Accedunt 

Constitutiones   et   alia   ad  Historiam  Ecclesiae  Anglican  ae  spectantia. 

Vol.  I,  ab  anno  ccccxlvi  ad  ann.  mcclxv.      1737. 


( 


Chapter  VI  4^9 

The  Martyrology 

Cockayne,  O.     In  The  Shrine.      1864-9. 

Herzfeld,  G.     An  Old  English  Martyrology.      E.E.T.S.      1900. 

Orosius's  History  of  the  World 

Barrington,    D.     The    Anglo-Saxon   Version    from    the    Historian    Orosius. 

Together  with  an  English  Translation.      1773. 
Bosworth,  J.      King  Alfred's  Anglo-Saxon  Version.      1855,  1859. 
Pauli,   R.      Life  of  Alfred  trans,  from  the  German.     To  which  is  appended 

Alfred's  Anglo-Saxon  Version  of  Orosius,  with  a  literal  English  trans., 

etc.      1853,  1878. 
Sweet,  H.      King  Alfred's  Orosius.      Old  English  Text  and  Latin  Original. 

E.E.T.S.      1883.     [See  also   Hakluyt  for  Ohthere  and   Wulfstan,   and 

Spelman,  below.] 

The  Proverbs 

Morris,  R.  An  Old  English  Miscellany,  containing  a  Bestiary,  Kentish 
Sermons,  Proverbs  of  Alfred,  and  Religious  Poems  of  the  thirteenth 
century.     E.E.T.S.      1872. 

St.  Augustine's  Soliloquies 

Cockayne,    O.     The    Shrine.     A   Collection   of   Occasional   Papers  on    Dry 

Subjects.      186S-9. 
Hargrove,    H.    L.     King  Alfred's  Old  English  Version  of  St.   Augustine's 

Soliloquies.      Yale   Studies  in   English,    xiii,    xxii.     New   York,    1902, 

1904. 
Hulme,  W.  H.     Englische  Studien,  xviii. 

Psalms  ascribed  to  Alfred 

Bruce,  J.  D.     Anglo-Saxon  Version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms.     Baltimore,  1894. 

See  also  B.  Thorpe's  ed.     Oxford,  1835. 
Wichmann,  J.     Anglia,  xi,  39. 

Critical  Estimates  and  Illustrative  Writings 
(See  also  bibliography  in  Literature,  14,  ix,  1901) 
Alfred,  his  works  and  his  reign 

Asser.  De  Rebus  gestis  Aelfredi  Magni,  edd.  Parker,  in  Thomas  of  Wal- 
singham,  1574;  Wise,  F.,  Oxford,  1722,  from  Cottonian  MS.  Otho  A.  xii, 
now  burnt;  Hardy,  T.  D.,  Mon.  Hist.  Brit.  1848.  See  also  Giles,  J.  A., 
Six  Old  English  Chronicles,  and  Stevenson,  W.  H.,  below. 

Bowker,  A.      Alfred  the  Great.      1899. 

Brooke,  S.  A.  King  Alfred  as  educator  of  his  people  and  man  of  letters. 
1901. 

Ebert,  A.  Allg.  Gesch.  der  Lit.  des  Mittelalters  im  Abendlande.  Leipzig, 
1874  flE. 

Freeman,  E.  A.     In  Diet.  Nat.  Biogr. 

Lappenberg,  J.  M.     Gesch.  von  England.      Eng.  trans.     2  vols.      1845  ff. 

Manning,  O.      King  Alfred's  Will.      Text  and  trans.      1788,  1S28. 

Pauh,  R.  Konig  Aelfred.  Berhn,  1851.  [Trans,  rev.  by  auth.,  ed.  Wright, 
T.,  1852;  also  ed.  Thorpe,  B.,  1853]. 


490  Bibliography  to 

Plummer,  C.     The  Life  and  Times  of  Alfred  the  Great.     Oxford,  1902. 
Spelman.J.     Aelfredi  Magni  Vita.     Oxford,  1678.     [Also  contains  Voyages  of 

Ohthere  and  Wulfstan.]     Ed.  Hearne,  T.      Oxford,  1709. 
Stevenson,  W.  H.     Asser's  Life  of  Alfred,  together  with  the  Annals  of  St. 

Neots,  erroneously  ascribed  to  Asser.      Oxford,  1904. 
Stubbs,  W.      Constitutional  Hist.  i.      1874  ff. 
Winkelmann,  E.      Gesch.   der  Ags.  bis  zum  Tode  Konig  Aelfreds.      Berlin, 

1883. 
Wright,  T.     Biogr.  Brit.  Lit.     2  vols.  1842,  1846. 

Wuelfing,  J.  E.      Die  Syntax  in  den  Werken  Alfreds  des  Grossen.      3  parts. 

Bonn,  1S94-1901. 

(See  also  Athenaeum,  3,  xi,  1900  ff.,  concerning  Alfred's  death.) 

Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History 

Hart,  J.   M.      Rhetoric  in  the  trans,  of  Bede.      In  An  English  Miscellany. 

Oxford,  1 90 1. 
Lumby,  J.    R.      Be  Domes  Daege   (Bede's  De  Die  Judicii),  etc.      E.E.T.S. 

1876. 
Miller,  T.     Place  Names  in  the  English  Bede.     QF.     Berlin.      1896. 
Schipper,  J.      Gegenwartiger  Stand  der  Forschung  liber  K.  Aelfreds  Beda- 

ubersetzung.      1898. 
Schmidt.      Untersuchungen   uber   K.  Aelfred's  Beda-ubersetzung.      1889. 
Wiilker,  R.      Ueber  die  Quellen  Layamons.      P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  in. 

(See  also  Zupitza  in  ZDA.,  N.F.  xviii,  and  Klaeber,  F.  in  Anglia,  xxv.) 

Boethius's  Consolation  of  Philosophy 

Hartmann,  M.  Anglia,  v. 
Leicht,  A.  Anglia,  vi,  vii. 
Paris,  Gaston.     Journal  des  Savants.      1884. 

Rieger,  M.    ♦Die  alt-und  angelsachsische  Verskunst.     Halle,  1876. 
Schepss,  G.     Archiv  fiir  das  Studium  der  neueren  Sprachen,  94. 
Stewart,  H.  F.      Boethius :  an  essay.      Edinburgh,  189 1. 

Tupper,  J.  W.     Tropes  and  Figures  in  Anglo-Saxon  Prose.      Baltimore,  1897. 
Zimmerman,  O.      Uebr  den  Verfasser  der  alt-englischen  Metren  des  Boethius. 
Greifswald,  1882. 

Gregory's  Dialogties 

Johnson,  H.     Gab  es  zwei  von  einander  unabhangige  altenglische  Ueber- 

setzungen  der  Dialoge  Gregor's?     Berlin,  1884. 
Krebs,  H.     Anglia,  11. 

Gregory's  Pastoral  Care 

Fleischhauer,  W.  Ueber  den  Gebrauch  des  Conjunctivs  in  Alfred's  alten- 
glischer  Uebersetzung  von  Gregor's  Cura  Pastoralis.      Erlangen,   1885. 

Kern,  J.  H.     P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  xvi. 

Wack,  G.  Ueber  das  Verhaltnis  von  Konig  Aelfreds  Uebersetzung  der  Cura 
Pastoralis  zum  Original.      Colberg,  1889. 

Wuelfing,  J.  E.  Darstellung  der  Syntax  in  Konig  Alfred's  Uebersetzung 
von  Gregor's  des  Grossen  "Cura  Pastoralis."     Bonn,  1888. 


Chapter  VII  49 1 


Tlie  Laws. 

Adams,  H.  (ed.).     Essays  on  Anglo-Saxon  Law.     Boston,  1876. 
Maitland,  F.     Traill's  Social  England,  i. 

Pollock,  F.     English  Law  before  the  Norman  Conquest.    In  Bowker's  Alfred 
the  Great.     1899. 

Orosius's  History  of  the  World. 

(For  Orosius  himself  [ed.  princeps,  Vienna,   1471J  see  ed.  Zangemeister, 
c,  in  Corp.  Scrip.  Ecc.  Lat.,  Vienna,  1882  and  Migne's  Patrologia.) 

Geidel,  H.     Alfred  der  Grosse  als  Geograph.     In  Miinchener  geographische 
Studien.     Stuck  15.      1904. 

Hampson,  R.  T.     On  the  Geography  of  King  Alfred  the  Great.     In  Bos- 
worth's  Orosius.      1859. 

Markham,  C.     Alfred  as  a  Geographer.     In  Bowker's  Alfred  the  Great. 
1899. 

Schilling,     H.     Konig    Aelfred's    angelsachsische   Bearbeitung    der    Welt- 
geschichte  des  Orosius.     Halle,  1886. 

St.  Augustine's  Soliloquies. 

Hubbard,  F.  G.     MLN.  ix.     Baltimore,  1894. 
Wiilker,  R.     P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  iv. 

CHAPTER    VII 
FROM  ALFRED  TO  THE  CONQUEST 

General  Authorities. 
(See  also  similar  lists  in  earlier  bibliographies.) 

Abegg,  D.     Die  Entwicklung  der  hist.  Dicht.  der  Angelsachsen.     Strassburg, 

1894.     QF.  Lxxiii. 
Birch,  De  Gray.      Cartularium  Saxonicum.      1885. 
Camden,  W.     Remaines.      1605,  1674,  1870,  etc. 
Cockayne,   T.   O.     Leechdoms,   Wort-Cunning  and  Starcraft . . .  illustrating 

the  history  of  Science  in  this  country  before  the  Norman  conquest. 

1864  fE.     3  vols. 
Dixon,  W.  R.     Fasti  Eboracenses.      1863. 
Dugdale,  W.     Monasticum  Anglicanum.      1655  ff.,  1849. 
Ebert,  A.     Gesch.  der  Lit.  des  Mittelalters  im  Abendlande.     3  vols.     Leipzig, 

1874  ff. 
Einenkel,    E.     Uber    die    Verfasser    einiger  neuangelsachsischer  Schri^ten. 

1887. 
Foxe,  John.     Acts  and  Monuments.      1563,  1570  fl. 
Furnivall,  F.  J.,  An  English  Miscellany  presented  to.     Oxford,  1901. 
Graham,   R.     Intellectual  Influence  of  English  Monasticism  between  loth 

and  12th  centuries.      Roy.  Hist.  Soc.  xvii. 
Grein,  C.  W.  M.     Kurzgefasste  angelsachsische  graminatik.     Cassel,   1880. 
Grein,  C.   W.  M.  and  Walker,   R.     Bibliothek  der  angelsachsischen  prosa. 

Cassel  and  Gottingen.  1872-1900. 
Hickes,  G.  Thesaurus.  Oxford,  1705. 
Hook,  W.  F.     Lives  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury.      12  vols,      i860  ff. 


492  Bibliography  to 

John,  Ivor  B.     Popular  Studies  in  Mythology,  Romance  and  Folklore,     xi. 

1901. 
Johnson,  J.     A  Collection  of  the  Laws  and  Canons  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Oxford,  1850. 
Kemble,  J.  M.     Codex  Diplomaticus  Aevi  Saxonici.     Eng.  Hist.  Soc.     6  vols. 

1839  flf.     [An  invaluable  work.] 
Korner,  K.     Einleitung  in  das  Studium  des  Angelsachsischen.      Heilbronn, 

1880. 
Langebeck,  J.     Scriptores  Rerum  Danicarum  Hafniae.      1773. 
Lappenberg,  J.  M.     Geschichte  von  England.      Hamburg,  1834.      Eng.  trans. 

2  vols.     1845. 
Lingard,  J.     The  Antiquities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Church.     2nd  ed.      1810. 
Lipsius,  R.  A.     Die  Edessenische  Abgarsage.     Brunswick,  1S80. 
Montalembert,  De.     The  Monks  of  the  West.     Eng.  trans.     7  vols.      1861  £f. 
Mosheim,  J.  L.     Eccles.  Hist.     Ed.  Stubbs.     3  vols.     1755,  1863. 
Mullinger,  J.  Bass.      Schools  of  Charles  the  Great  and  Restoration  of  Educa- 
tion in  the  Ninth  Century.      1877. 
Paul,    H.     Grundriss   der   Germanischen    Philologie.      (Ten  Brink  in  viii.) 

Strassburg,  1889  ff. 
Raine,  J.     The  Historians  of  the  Church  of  York.     Rolls  Series.     1879. 
Saran,  F.     Philol.  Stud.     Festgabe  fiir  E.  Sievers.     Halle,  1896. 
Shearin,  H.  G.     The  Expression  of  Purpose  in  Old  English  Prose.     Yale 

Studies  in  English,  xviii.     1903. 
Sievers,  E.     Collationen  angelsachsischer  Gedichte.     Haupt's  ZDA.  xv. 
Smith,  J.  Gregory.     The  Rise  of  Christian  Monasticism.      1891. 
Somner,  W.     Diet.  Sax. -Lat.-Angl.      1659.     [For  the  poem  on  Durham.] 
Spelman,  H.      Concilia,  decreta,  leges,  constitutiones,  in  re  ecclesiarum  orbis 

Britannici.      1639. 
Thorpe,  B.     Diplomat.  Angl.  Aevi  Saxonici.     1865. 

Tupper,  F.     Hist,  and  Text  of  Benedictine  Reform,   loth  c.     MLN.     1893. 
Twisden,  R.     Historiae  anglicanae  scriptores.      1652. 
Ussher,  J.     Eccles.  Brit.  Antiq.     Ed.  Elrington,  C.  R.      1842  ff. 
Verstegan,  R.     A  Restitution  of  Decayed  Intelligence  in  Antiquities.      1605. 
Vietor,  W.     Einfiihrung  in  das  Studium  der  Engl.  Phil.     Marburg,  1903. 
Warton,  T.     The  History  of  English  Poetry.      1774,  1840,  1854,  1871,  etc. 
West,  A.  F.     Alcuin  and  the  Rise  of  the  Christian  Schools.     1892. 
Wharton,  H.     Anglia  Sacra.     2  vols.  1692. 

Wilkins,  D.     Leges  Anglo-Saxonicae  ecclesiasticae  et  civiles.     172 1. 
Worsaae,  J.     An  account  of  the  Danes  and  Norwegians  in  England,  Scotland, 

and  Ireland.      1852. 
Wright,  T.     The  Celt,  Roman  and  Saxon.      1861. 

A  History  of  English  Culture.      187 1. 

Popular  treatises  on   Science. ..in    Anglo-Saxon,    Anglo-Norman    and 

English.      1841. 
A  Volume  of  Vocabularies.     1857,1873.     Ed.  Wulker.     1883. 

Aelfric  and  Wiilfstan,  etc. 

For  MSS.,  see  foot  of  pages  of  text.     For  Aelfric's  life,  see  Wright,  T.,  Biogr. 

Brit.  Lit.,  Stevenson's  Chronicon  Monasterii  de  Abingdon,  Acta  vSanc- 

torum  and  Mabillon's  Acta  SS.  Bened. 
Aethelwold,  or  Ethelwold.     For  the  treatise  on  the  circle  attributed  to 

Aethelwold,  see  Bodl.  MS.,  Digby  83  f.  24.     See  also  Miss  M.  Bateson's 


Chapter  VII  493 

edition  of  De  Consuet.  Monach.,  Hampshire  Record  Soc,  1892.    Wulfstan 

of  Winchester  (fi.  1000)  inay  be  mentioned  as  a  pupil  of  bp.  Ethelwold. 

He  versified  Lanferth's  Life  and  Miracles  of  St.  Swithun.     MS.,  Brit. 

Mus.  Royal,  15  C  vii. 
Assmann,  B.    Abt  Aelfric's  ags.  bearbeitung  des  buches  Esther.     Halle,  1885. 

Abt  Aelfric's  A.S.  Homilie  tiber  das  Buch  Judith.     Anglia,  x. 

Bale,  John.     Illustrium  Majoris  Britanniae  Scriptorum.      1548. 

Bouterwek,    K.    W.     Interrogationes    Sigwulfi    Presbyteri,    in   Screadunga. 

Elberfeldae,  1858. 
Chronicle  of  the  Monastery  of  Abingdon.     Ed.  Stevenson,  J.     2  vols.      Rolls 

Series.      1858. 
Chronicles  of  Evesham.     Ed.  Macray,  W.  D.     Rolls  Series.     1863. 
Dietrich,  E.     Abt  Aelfrik.     Zur  Literaturgesch.  d.  angelsach.  Kirche.     Z.  f. 

hist.  Theol.      1855-6.     [A  standard  work.] 
Dunstan.     See  Memorials,  ed.  Stubbs,  Rolls  Series,  in  which  the  early  lives 

(Byrthferth's  etc.)  are  adequately  treated. 
Einenkel,  E.     Der  Sermo  Lupi.     Anglia,  vii.     See  also  Anglia,  v. 
Elstob,  W.     Sermo  Lupi  Episcopi...     Oxon,  1701. 
Goodwin,  C.  W.     The  Anglo-Saxon  version  of  the  Life  of  St.  Guthlac... 

[Originally  written  in  Latin,  by  Felix. ..of  Crowland.]     With  a  trans,  and 

notes.      1848. 
Grain,  Chr.     Aelfric's  Auszug  aus  dem  Buch  der  Richter.     Anglia,  11. 
Kinard,  J.  P.     A  study  of  Wulfstan's  Homilies.     Baltimore,  1897. 
Kock,  E.  A.      The  rule  of   St.  Benet  in  Northern  Prose  and  Verse,  and 

Caxton's  Summary.     E.E.T.S.     1902. 
Lefevre,  P.     Das  altenglische  Gedicht  vom  heiligen  Guthlac.     Anglia,   vi. 

See  also  Wiilker,  R.  in  Anglia,  iii  (on  St.  Neots). 
L'Isle,  W.     Divers  ancient  Monuments  in  the  Saxon  tongue.      1638. 

A  Saxon  Treatise  concerning  the  Old  and  New  Testament.      1623. 

Logeman,  H.     The  rule  of  St,  Benet.     Lat.  and  Anglo-Saxon  interlin.  vers. 

E.E.T.S.      1888. 
Morris,  R.     The  Blickling  Homilies.     E.E.T.S.      1874-80.     See  also  Zupitza, 

J.,  ZDA.  XXVI. 
Napier,  A.     Uber  die  Werke  des  altenglischen  Erzbischofs  Wulfstan.     Wei- 
mar, 1882. 

Wulfstan's  Homilies.     Berlin,  1883. 

Nehab,  J.     Der  altenglische  Cato.     Berlin,  1879. 

Norman,  H.W.  The  Anglo-Saxon  version  of  the  Hexameronof  St.Basil.    1849. 

Oswald,  St.   (d.  927),  archbishop  of  York.     See  Historians  of   York,   Rolls 

Series,  for  the  Ramsey  and  Eadmer  lives. 
Schroer,    A.     Die   angelsachsischen   Prosabearbeitungen   der   Benediktiner- 

regel.      1885.     See  Grein- Wiilker,  Bibliothek. 
Skeat,  W.  W.  (ed.).     Lives  of  the  Saints.     E.E.T.S.     1881  ff. 
Sweet,  H.     Selections  from  Aelfric's  Homilies.     Oxford,  1896. 
Testimonie,  A,  of  Antiquitie,  showing  the  auncient  fayth  in  the  Church  of 

England  touching  the  sacrament  of  the  body  and  bloude  of  the  Lord. 

1566,  etc.     [For  the  Paschal  homily.] 
Thorpe,  B.     Analecta  Anglo-Saxonica.      1834.     [For  Aelfric's  Colloquium. 

The  interlinear  English  gloss  is  in  the  Cott.  MS.,  Tib.  A.  iii,  Brit.  Mus., 

not  in  the  Oxford  MS.  of  Aelfric's  disciple.] 
Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes  of  England  (Aelfric's  Pastoral  Letter,  etc.). 

2  vols.      1840. 


494  Bibliography  to 

Thorpe,  B.     Homilies  of  the   Anglo-Saxon  church.     2    vols.     Aelfric  Soc. 

1844-6.     See  also  The  Chief  Sources  of  some  Anglo-Saxon  Homilies,  Otia 

Merseiana,  Liverpool,  1899. 
Thwaites,     E.     Heptateuchus...Evangelium     Nicodemi... Judith...     Oxford^ 

1698. 
Trautmann,  M.     Anglia,  v. 
White,  C.    L.     Aelfric.     A   New   Study   of   his    Life    and    Writings.     Yale 

Studies  in  English.      1898.     [Good  bibliography.] 
Wyatt,  A.  J.  and  Johnson,  H.  H.     A  glossary  to  Aelfric's  Homilies.      1891. 
Zupitza,    J.     Aelfrics    Grammatik    und    Glossar.      Berlin,    1880.     See    alsO' 

Oxford  edition  of  Glossary,  1659. 

Battle  of  Maldon,  or  Byrhtnoth's  Death 

[The  death  is  mentioned  in  the  chronicles  of  Florence  of  Worcester, 
Henry  of  Huntingdon,  etc.] 

Crow,  C.  L.     Maldon  and  Brunanburh.      Boston.  1897. 

Gamett,  J.  M.  Translations  of  Byrthnoth's  Death,  Judith,  Elene,  Brunan- 
burh.    Boston,  1882  flf. 

Haack.     Zeugnisse  zur  altenglischen  Heldensage.     Kiel,  1892. 

Hardwick,  C.     Lancashire  Battlefields. 

Hearne,  T.  Johannis...Glastoniensis  Chronica  sive  Historia  de  Rebus 
Glastoniensibus.  2  vols.  Oxford,  1726.  See  also  Thorpe's  Analecta. 
Anglo-Saxonica. 

Heinzel,  R.     Uber  den  Styl  der  altgermanischen  Poesie.     QF.x. 

Hickey,  E.     In  Verse  Tales.     Liverpool,  1889. 

Liebermann,  F.     Zur  Geschichte  Byrhtnoths.     Arch.  ci. 

Ker,  W.  P.  The  Dark  Ages.  1904.  ["There  is  no  stronger  composition  in 
English  till  the  work  of  Chaucer;  there  is  nothing  equally  heroic  before 
Samson  Agonistes,"  p.  254.] 

Lumsden.     Trans,  in  Macmillan's  Mag.     March,  1887. 

Sedgefield,  W.  J.  The  Battle  of  Maldon  and  Short  Poems  from  the  Saxon 
Chronicle.     [Contains  a  useful  bibliography.]     Boston,  1904. 

Sims,  W.  R.     MLN.  vii.      1892. 

Trautmann,  H.     Anglia,  11  and  vii. 

Zemial,  U.     Das  Lied  von  Byrhtnoths  Fall.     Berlin,  1882. 

The  Old  English  Chronicle 
(For  MSS.  see  text.) 

The  ground  covered  by  the  various  recensions  is  as  follows : 

Winchester,  B.C.  60 — a.d.  1070.      Worcester,  a.d.  i — a.d.  1079. 

Canterbury,  a.d      i — a.d.     977.      Peterborough,  a.d.  i — a.d.  1154. 

Abingdon,      B.C.  60 — a.d.  1066.      Cott.  Dom.  A.  viii,  a.d.  i — a.d.  1058. 

[The  Latin  Chronicle  of  Aethelweard  (d.  998?),  from  the  Creation  to  975,  is  the 
earliest  of  a  long  line  and  may  be  mentioned  here  as  being  founded  on 
the  Old  English  Chronicle,  and  on  the  works  of  Isidore  and  Bede.  The 
MS.  was  burnt  in  the  Cottonian  fire.  See  Mon.  Hist.  Brit.  1848,  ed. 
Hardy,  T.  D.,  Giles's  Chronicles  and  Stevenson's  Church  Historians  of 
England.] 

Ettmiiller,  L.  Scopes  vidsidh...Aethelstans  Sieg  bei  Brunnanburg.  Ztirich, 
1839.  For  Brunanburh,  see  also  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  Warton, 
Tennyson,  and  Crow's  and  Sedgefield's  books  under  Battle  of  Maldon. 


Chapter  VII  495 

Grubitz,  E.     Kritische  Untersuchung  iiber  die  angelsachsischen  Annalen  bis 

zum  Jahre  893 .     Gottingen,  1868. 
Plummer,  C.    Two  of  the  Saxon  Chronicles  Parallel  (Parker  A.  and  Laud  E.). 

Oxford,   1892-9.     See  also  J.  Earle's  edition  of  1865,  Thorpe's  in   the 

Rolls  Series,  1861,  in  2  vols.,  containing  6  texts  and  trans,  and  Gibson's, 

Oxford,  1692. 
[The  story  of  the  death  of  king  Cynewulf,  to  which  reference   is  made  on 

p.  1 18  ante,  will  be  found  in  the  Chronicle  under  the  year  755.     It  relates 

the  murder  of  Cynewulf  by  Cyneheard  while  the  king  was  visiting  his 

mistress  at  Merton,  Surrey.] 

Doomsday  Poems 

(See  also  P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  xx,  443-) 

Brand],  A,     Be  Domes  Daege.     Anglia,  iv. 

Doring.     The  Anglo-Saxon  Poets  on  the  Judgment  Day.     Halle,  1890. 

Lumby,  J.  R.     Be  Domes  Daege.     E.E.T.S.      1876. 

(For  the  Grave  poem,  see  Thorpe's  Analecta.) 

Gospels  and  Psalters 

Bosworth,  J.  and  Waring,  G.     The  Gothic  and  Anglo-Saxon  Gospels  with 

the  versions  of  Wyclif  and  Tyndale.      1865. 
Bouterwek,  K.  W.     Die  vier  Evangelien  in  alt-nordhumbrischer  Sprache. 

Gutersloh,  1857. 
Bright,  J.  W.     The  Gospels  of  St.  Matthew,  St.  Mark  and  St.  John,  in  West 

Saxon.     3  vols.     Belles  Lettres  Series. 
Bruce,  J.  Douglas.      The   Anglo-Saxon    version   of    the    Book   of   Psalms. 

MLA.  IX.     Baltimore,  1894. 
Biilbring,  K.  D.     The  earliest  English  prose  Psalter,  etc.      1891.     E.E.T.S. 
Chapman,  H.  W.     An  Index  to  the  Old  English  Glosses  of  the  Durham 

Hymnarium.     Yale  Studies  in  English,  xxiv.      1905- 
Cook,  A.  S.     Glossary  of  the  Old  Northumbrian  Gospels  (Lindisfame  Gospels, 

Old  Durham  Book).     Halle,  1894. 
Foley,  E.  H.     The  Phonology  of  the  Northumbrian  Gloss  of  St.  Matthew. 

Yale  Studies  in  English,  xiv.      1903- 
Hardwick,  C.  and  Skeat,  W.  W.     The  Gospels  in  Anglo-Saxon  Northumbrian. 

Cambridge,  1858,  1878. 
Harris,  M.  A.     A  Glossary  of  the  West-Saxon  Gospels.     Yale  Studies  in 

English,  VI.      1899. 
Harsley,    F.     Eadwine's    Canterbury    Psalter    (Latin    and    Old    English). 

E.E.T.S.     1889. 
Junius,  F.   (F.  Du  Jon).     Quatuor  D.  N.  Jesu  Christi  Evangeliorum.  etc. 

Dordrecht,  1665. 
Kellum,  M.  D.     The  Language  of  the  Northumbrian  Gloss  to  the  Gospel  of 

S.  Luke.     Yale  Studies  in  English,  xxx.     1906. 
Lindelof.     Worterbuch  zur  Interlin.  des  Rit.  Eccles.  Dunelm.  etc.     BBA. 

IX  and  X.      1901. 
[Parker,  M.]     Gospels,  The,  of  the  fower  Evangelistes,  trans,  in  the  olde 

Saxons  tyme  out  of  Latin.      1571.      2nd  edition  from  an  earlier  copy, 

ed.  Marshall.     Dordrecht,  1665. 
Stevenson,  J.      Anglo-Saxon  and  Early  English  Psalter.      Surtees  Society, 

1844-7. 


496  Bibliography  to 

Stevenson,  J.  and  Waring,  G.     The  Lindisfarne  and  Rushworth  Gospels. 

Surtees  Society.      1854-65. 
Tanger,  G.     Collation  des  Psalters.     Anglia,  vi. 
Thoq5e,  B .     Libri  Psalmorum...cum paraphrasi  Anglo-Saxonica,  etc.    Oxford, 

1835- 

Tha  Halgan  Godspel  on  Englisc.     1842. 

Warren,  F.  E.     Leofric  Missal.     Oxford. 

Wiilker,  R.     Das  Evangelium  Nicodemi  in  der  Abendlandischen  Litteratur. 

Paderbom,  1872.     [Cf.  Ker's  Dark  Ages,  p.  67.] 
Zeuner,  R.     Die  Sprache  des  Kentischen  Psalters.     Halle,  1882. 

Jiidith 

Brincker,  F.  Germanische  Alterthumer  in  dem  Angel.  Ged.  Judith.  Ham- 
burg, 1898. 

Cook,  A.  S.     Judith  (with  trans.).     1888,  1904.     [Excellent  editions.] 

Notes  on  a  Northumbrianised  version  of  Judith.     Amer.  Phil.  Ass.  xx. 

Elton,  O.  Trans,  in  An  Eng.  Miscellany  (Furnivall  Memorial  Vol.).  Oxford. 
1901. 

Foster,  J.  Gregory.  Judith.  Studies  in  Metre,  Language  and  Style. 
Strassburg,  1892.     QF.  71. 

Hall,  J.  L.     Judith,  etc.     New  York,  etc.     1902. 

Hickey,  E.  H.     Trans,  in  Jrnl.  of  Education,  i  Feb.  1889. 

Neumann,  M.     Uber  das  Altenglische  Gedichte  von  Judith.     Kiel,  1892. 

Nilsson,  L.  G.     Judith.     Copenhagen.     1858. 

Legends,  Sacred  and  Secular 

The  Holy  Rood,  etc.    (for  the   South   English   Legendary  and  Cursor 
Mundi,  see  bibliography  to  Chapter  xvi.). 

Baskervill,  W.  M.     Anglia,  iv,  on  Alexander  and  Aristotle. 

Cockayne,  O.  Narratiunculae  Anglice  Conscriptae.  1861.  [For  Alexander 
to  Aristotle  and  Wonders  of  the  East.] 

Copland,  R.  Apol.  of  Tyre.  Printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  15 10.  Ed. 
Ashbee.     1870. 

Goodwin,  C.  W.  Anglo-Saxon  Legends  of  St.  Andrew  and  St.  Veronica. 
Camb.  Antiq.  Soc.     185 1. 

Herzfeld,  G.     An  Old  English  Martyrology.     E.E.T.S.     1900. 

Holder,  A.     Inventio  sanctae  Crucis.     Leipzig,  1889. 

Klebs,  E.     Die  Erzahlung  von  Ap.  aus  Tyrus.     Berlin,  1899. 

Meyer,  W.     Die  Geschichte  des  Kreuzholzes  vor  Christus.     Miinich,  1882. 

Morris,  R.     Legends  of  the  Holy  Rood.  E.E.T.S.  1871. 

Mussafia,  A.  Sulla  leggenda  del  legno  della  Croce.  Sitz.  der  Wiener  Akad. 
LXIII.       1869. 

Napier,  A.  S.     Legend  of  the  Cross,  a  12th  c.  vers.   E.E.T.S.   1894. 

Nestle,  E.     De  sancta  cruce.     Berlin,  1889. 

Rothschild,  J.  de.     Le  mistere  du  viel  Testament.     Paris,  1878-84. 

Singer,  S.     ApoUonius  von  Tyrus.     Berlin,  1906. 

Smyth,  A.  H.  Shakespeare's  Pericles  and  ApoUonius  of  Tyre.  1898.  [Con- 
tains a  discussion  of  relations.] 

Thorpe,  B.  ApoUonius  of  Tyre.  With  a  trans.  1834.  See  also  Gesta 
Romanorum  and  similar  collections. 

Zupitza,  J.     On  ApoUonius.     Anglia,  i,  and  Archiv,  xcii. 


Chapter  VIII  49/ 


Menologium 

Bouterwek,  K.  W.    Calendewide,  i.e.  Menologium  Ecclesiae  Anglo-Saxonicae 

poeticum.     Giitersloh,  1857. 
Fox,  S.     Menologium  seu  Calendarium  Poeticum.     With  Eng.  trans.     1830. 
Hoops.     Uber  die  altengl.  Pfianzennamem.     Freib.  i.  B.     1889. 

(See  also  Cosijn,  P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  xx.) 

Note. — An  earlier  year  than  the  usually  accepted  901  for  the  date  of 
Alfred's  death  has  been  held  of  late.     See  Stevenson,  W.  H.,  under  Alfred. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  NORMAN  CONQUEST 

Anselm.  For  works  see  Migne,  Patrologia.  See  also  Dean  Church  on 
Anselm,  1843,  1870  ff.;  Eadmer  in  Rolls  Series,  ed.  Rule,  M.,  1884;  life 
by  de  Remusat,  C,  Paris,  1853-68. 

Bateson,  M.  Medieval  England,  1066-1350.  1905.  [An  excellent  work, 
on  Norman  Feudalism,  The  Lawyers'  Feudalism  and  Decadent  Feu- 
dalism. See  especially  the  chapters  on  Learning,  Art  and  Education,  the 
Church  and  the  Nation,  etc.] 

Craik,  G.  L.  A  Compendious  Hist,  of  Eng.  Lit.  and  of  the  Eng.  Lang,  from 
the  Norman  Conquest.  2  vols.  1869.  [Contains  many  useful  sections 
on  Arabic  learning,  scholastic  philosophy,  Law  treatises,  Norman 
trouveres,  mathematical  and  other  studies,  Anglo-Norman  poets,  the 
Here  prophecy  and  publications  of  literary  societies.] 

Dunstan.  See  Stubbs'  invaluable  Memorials  in  Rolls  Series,  which  contains 
Osbern's  life,  and  other  documents. 

Fowke,  M.  F.  R.     Bayeux  Tapestry.     Arundel  Soc.      1875. 

Freeman,  E.  A.     History  of  the  Norman  Conquest.     6  vols.     1867  ff. 

Froude,  J.  A.     Life  and  Times  of  Becket  (in  Short  Studies).     1867  fiE. 

Gaimar,  Geoffrey  (fl.  1140?).  Lestorie  des  Engles.  Ed.  Hardy,  T.  D.,  and 
Martin,  E.  T.      Rolls  Series       1888-9.      See  Meyer  P.,  in  Romania,  xviii. 

Hardy,  T.  D.  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Materials  relating  to  the  History  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.     Rolls  Series.      1862  fl. 

Hunt,  W.  and  Poole,  R.  L.  (edd.).  Political  History  of  England.  12  vols. 
In  progress. 

Hutton,  W.  H.  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  Eng.  Hist.  fr.  Contemp.  Writers. 
1890. 

Jordan  Fantosme.  Chronique  de  la  Guerre  entre  des  Anglois  et  les  Escossois, 
1 1 73-4,  in  French  verse,  edd.  Howlett,  R.,  in  Chron.  Steph.,  Henry 
II  and  Richard  I,  Rolls  Series,  1884  ft".;  and  Michel,  Fr.,  Surtees  Soc.  xi, 
1840. 

Jusserand,  J.  J.  Hist.  Litt.  du  peuple  Angl.  Vol.  i.  See  esp.  Les  Lettres 
frangaises  sous  les  rois  Norman ds  et  Angevins,  and  Le  Nouveau  Peuple. 

Laing,  S.  and  Anderson,  R.  B.  The  Heimskringla  Saga,  or  the  Sagas  of  the 
Norse  Kings,  from  the  Icelandic  of  Snorre  Sturlason.     4  vols.     1889. 

Lanfranc.  For  works,  see  Giles,  J.  A.,  Patres  Ecclesiae,  1844.  See  also 
Freeman's  William  the  Conqueror  and  William  Rufus;  and,  on  the 
Lombard  handwriting  in  vogue  at  Canterbury,  James,  M.  R.,  Ancient 
Libraries  of  Canterbury  and  Dover,  Cambridge,  1903. 
Loliee,  F.  A  Short  Hist,  of  Comparative  Lit.  Eng.  trans.  Power,  M.  D. 
1906. 


498  Bibliography  to 

Maitland,  F.  W.  Domesday  Book  and  Beyond.  Cambridge,  1897.  [For 
the  Domesday  Book  itself,  see  the  Rolls  Series.] 

Maitre,  L.     Les  Ecoles  Episcopales  et  Monastiques.     Paris,  1866. 

Norgate,  K.     England  under  the  Angevin  Kings.     2  vols.     1887. 

Norman  Literature.  For  French  and  Anglo-Norman  literature  at  the  time 
of  the  Conquest,  and  an  account  of  the  works  produced  both  in  England 
and  in  France  by  Anglo-Norman  writers,  see  Paris,  Gaston,  La  Litt.  fr. 
au  Moyen  Age  (xi'^ — xiV^  siecle),  1890,  and  the  Notes  Bibliographiques 
at  the  end  of  that  volume;  Petit  de  Julleville,  Hist,  de  la  Langue  et  de 
la  Litt.  fr.  des  Origines  a  igoo,  Vols,  i  and  11  Moyen  Age,  des  Origines  a 
1500;  the  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  Paris,  1733  If.;  Schofield,  W.  H.,  Eng. 
Lit.  from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  Chaucer,  1906  (contains  a  fuller 
account  of  Anglo-Norman  work  than  has  hitherto  been  given  in  a  history 
of  English  literature) ;  Edwardes,  Marian,  A  Summary  of  the  Literatures 
of  Modern  Europe  (England,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  Spain)  from  the 
origins  to  1500,  1907  (an  excellent  and  most  useful  handbook  of  sum- 
maries and  bibliographies) ;  and  also  the  Bibliographies  to  Chapters  xii, 
XIII  and  xiv.  The  influence  of  Anglo-Norman  Poetry  on  English  verse 
is  discussed  at  length  in  Courthope,  W.  J.,  A  History  of  English  Poetry, 
Vol.  I  (The  Middle  Ages:  Influence  of  the  Roman  Empire — The  En- 
cyclopaedic Education  of  the  Church — The  Feudal  System),  and 
interesting  details  of  the  treatment  of  Old  English  MSS.  by  Norman 
monks  will  be  found  in  Morley's  English  Writers,  Vol.  11,  107,  and 
Warton's  English  Poetry,  Vol.  i.  For  Provencal  literature,  the  trou- 
badours and  the  trouveres,  see  Julleville,  Vols,  i  and  11;  Stimming,  in 
Grober's  Grundriss  der  Rom.  Phil.,  Strassburg,  1898  fi.;  Paris,  G.,  Les 
Origines  de  la  Poesie  lyrique  en  France  au  moyen  age,  Paris,  1889;  and 
Schofield.  The  fashions  of  the  minstrels  are  discussed  in  the  latter  work 
on  p.  17,  and,  at  greater  length,  in  Chambers,  E.  K.,  The  Medieval  Stage, 
Vol.  I. 

Pearson,  C.  H.  History  of  England  during  the  Early  and  Middle  Ages. 
2  vols.     1867. 

Round,  J.  H.    Feudal  England.     1895. 

Sandys,  J.  E.  A  History  of  Classical  Scholarship  from  the  sixth  century  B.C. 
to  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages.     2nd  ed.     1907. 

Steele,  R.  On  Science  and  Pseudo-Science,  1270-1340,  in  Traill's  Social 
England,  11. 

Stubbs,  W.     Constitutional  History  of  England.     Oxford,  1874  ff. 

Select  Charters.     Oxford,  1870  ff. 

Taine,  H.  A.  Hist,  of  Eng.  Lit.  Eng.  trans.  Van  Laun,  H.  4  vols.  Latest 
ed.,  1906.     Bk.  I,  The  Source  (Saxons,  Normans  and  the  New  Tongue). 

Traill,  H.  D.     Social  England,  i.     1898. 

Tucker,  T.  G.  The  Foreign  Debt  of  English  Literature,  1907.  [Brief  sum- 
maries, with  good  tables,  of  Greek,  Latin,  French,  Italian  and  other  in- 
fluences, together  with  an  interesting  chapter  of  Literary  Currents  of 
the  Dark  Ages.] 

Wace  (fl.  1 170). 

The  Roman  de  Rou  is  a  valuable  metrical  record  of  the  deeds  of  Norman 
dukes,  prepared  for  Henry  II.  Wace  is  an  honest  chronicler,  and  his 
clear  phrasing  shows  the  typical  Norman;  the  portions  of  his  work 
dealing  with  Hastings  are  of  especial  interest  to  us.  There  is  no  good 
edition  of  the  Roman.     See  Gaston  Paris,  Romania,  ix,  and  Korting 


Chapter  IX  499 

Ueber  die  Quellen  des  Roman  de  Rou,  Leipzig,  1867.  For  Wace's 
Brut — an  excellent  rimed  version  of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  in  which  the 
Round  Table  makes  its  appearance — and  his  connection  with  Layamon 
and  Arthur,  see  Chapters  xi  and  xii;  Fletcher,  R.  H.,  Harvard  Studies 
and  Notes,  x,  Boston,  1906;  Brown,  A.  C.  L.,  The  Round  Table  before 
Wace,  Studies  and  Notes  (Harvard),  vii;  and  also  William  of  Poitiers' 
Gesta  Willelmi  ducis  Normannorum  et  regis  Angliae  (Giles's  Scriptores, 
Caxton  Soc,  1845). 
Wright,  T.     Popular  Treatises  on  Science,  1841. 

For  a  brief  bibliography  of  Chansons  de  Geste,  see  M.  Leon  Gautier's 
L'Epop^e  Nationale,  in  Julleville,  op.  cit.  i.  See  also  Bedier,  J.,  Les  Legendes 
Epiques  (in  the  press);  Gautier,  L.,  Les  Epopees  fr.,  Paris,  4  vols.,  1878  fif. ; 
Matzner,  E.,  Altfr.  Leider,  Berlin,  1853;  Meyer,  P.,  Doc.  MSS.  de  I'anc. 
Lit.  de  la  France,  cons,  dans  les  bibl.  de  la  Gr.  Bretagne,  Paris,  1871;  Meyer, 
P.,  Melanges  de  po6sie  Anglo-Normande,  Romania,  iv,  xv;  Paris,  G.,  Hist, 
poet,  de  Charlemagne,  new  ed.,  Paris,  1905;  Ten  Brink,  B.,  Hist.  Eng.  Lit., 
Vol.  I,  Appendix  on  the  date  of  the  English  Song  of  Roland.  The  biblio- 
graphy to  the  Carolingian  Romances  in  Chapters  xii,  xiii,  post,  should  also 
be  consulted. 

CHAPTER  IX 

LATIN  CHRONICLERS  FROM  THE  ELEVENTH  TO  THE 
THIRTEENTH  CENTURIES 

I.     Editions  and  Translations 

(i)     General  Collections  and  Authorities 

Annales  Monastici  (a.d.  1-1432).  Ed.  Luard,  H.  R.  Rolls  Series.  5  vols. 
1864-9. 

Chronicles  and  Memorials  of  the  Reign  of  Richard  I.  2  vols.  Ed.  Stubbs, 
W.  Rolls  Series. 

Chronicles  of  the  Reigns  of  Stephen,  Henry  II,  and  Richard  I.  Ed.  How- 
lett,  R.    Rolls  Series.    4  vols.     1S84-9. 

Chronicles  of  the  Reigns  of  Edward  I  and  Edward  II.  Ed.  Stubbs,  W. 
Rolls  Series.     2  vols.     1882-3. 

Church  Historians  of  England.  Stevenson,  J.  5  vols,  in  8.  1853-8.  Con- 
tains trans,  of  Simeon  of  Durham,  Chronicle  of  ]\Ielrose,  John  and  Rich- 
ard of  Hexham,  William  of  Malmesbury,  William  of  Xewburgh,  Robert 
of  Torigny,  Gesta  Stephani,  Gervase  of  Canterbury,  Richard  of  Devizes. 

Dugdale,  W.     Monasticum  Anglicanum.     8  vols.     1655  flf. 

Liebermann,  F.  Ungedruckte  Anglo-Normannische  Geschichtsquellen. 
Strassburg,  1879. 

Migne,  J.  P.  Patrologiae  Cursus  Completus.  Series  Latina.  221  vols,  in 
222.     Paris,  1844-64. 

Milman,  H.  H.    History  of  Latin  Christianity.    9  vols.    1854  ff. 

Monumenta  Franciscana.      Rolls  Series.      1858-82. 

Pertz,  G.  H.  Monumenta  Germaniae  Historica.  30  vols.  Hanover,  1826-96. 
See  esp.  Vols,  xiii,  xxvii,  xxviii  for  Anglo-Norman  Chroniclers. 

Pipe  Roll  Society's  publications.      1884  fif. 

Rolls  Series.  For  Chronicles  of  separate  monasteries,  e.g.  Abingdon,  Eves- 
ham, Malmesbury,  etc. 


500  Bibliography  to 

(ii)     Individual  Writers 

Becket,  St.  Thomas.  For  Chronicles  of  the  life  of  Becket  see  Bosham  and 
Fitzstephen  below,  and  also  the  volume  by  Hutton,  W.  H..  in  the 
admirable  series  entitled  English  History  from  Contemporary  Writers. 

Bosham,  Herbert  of  (fl.  1162-86).  Biographer  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury. See  ed.  Giles,  J.  A.,  in  Sanctus  Thomas  Cantuariensis,  1846; 
Migne's  Patrologia,  cxc;  and  Robertson,  J.  C,  Materials  for  the  History 
of  Abp.  T.  Becket,  Rolls  Series. 

Bracton,  Henry  of.  De  Legibus  et  Consuetudinibus  Angliae.  Ed.  Travers 
Twiss.  Rolls  Series.  6  vols.  1878-83.  Notebook.  Ed.  Maitland,  F.  W. 
3  vols.     Cambridge,  1887. 

Chronica  de  Mailros  (a.  d.  731-1275).  Ed.  by  Stevenson,  J.  Bannatyne 
Club.     Edinburgh,  1839. 

Chronica  Monasterii  St.  Albani.     Ed.  Riley,  H.  T.      Rolls  Series.     1863-76. 

Clare,  Osbert  de  (fi.  1136).  For  his  letters  on  contemporary  events,  see 
Scriptores  Monastici.     Brussels,  1846. 

Coggeshall,  Ralph  of  (d.  about  1227).  Chronicon  Anglicanum  (1066-1223). 
Ed.  Stevenson,  J.      Rolls  Series.      1S75. 

Cotton,  Bartholomew  de  (d.  1298?).  Historia  Anglicana  (chief  value  for 
1291-98).     Ed.  Luard,  H.  R.     Rolls  Series.     1859. 

Devizes,  Richard  of.  De  Rebus  Gestis  Ricardi  Primi  (1189-92).  Ed. 
Stevenson,  J.,  for  Eng.  Hist.  Soc,  1838.  Another  edition  by  Howlett, 
R.,  in  Rolls  Series,  Chronicles  of  Stephen,  etc.  1886.  Trans.  Giles,  J. 
A.,  in  Chronicles  of  the  Crusades.      1848. 

Diceto,  Ralph  of  (d.  about  1202).  Opera  Historica.  Ed.  Stubbs,  W. 
Rolls  Series.      2  vols.      1876. 

Durham,  Simeon  of  (d.  after  1129).  Opera  Omnia.  Ed.  Arnold,  T.  Rolls 
Series.     2  vols.     1882-5. 

Eadmer  (d.  about  1124).  Historia  Novorum  in  Anglia  (a.d.  960-1122). 
Ed.  Rule,  M.     Rolls  Series.     1884. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  Lives  of.     Ed.  Luard,  H.  R.     Rolls  Series.     1858. 

Ely,  Thomas  of  (fl.  1175).  For  his  history  of  Ely,  see  Acta  Sanctorum, 
Stewart's  Liber  Eliensis  and  Wharton's  Angliae  Sacra. 

Ernulf  (1040-1124).  Pupil  of  Lanfranc,  canonist  and  compiler  of  Textus 
Roffensis,  a  valuable  collection  of  documents  of  local  and  national 
interest.      Ed.  Hearne.      1720. 

Fitz-Neal,  Richard.  Dialogus  de  Scaccario.  Ed.  Stubbs,  W.  Select  Char- 
ters. 8th  ed.  Oxford,  1895.  Also  ed.  Hughes,  A.,  Crump,  C.  G.,  John- 
son, C.     Oxford,  1902.     See  Madox,  T.,  History  of  the  Exch.,  171 1-69. 

Fitzstephen,  Wm.  (d.  1190?)  Author  of  the  valuable  Vita  Sancti  Thomae 
[Becket].  Ed.  Robertson.  Rolls  Series.  1877.  [Fitzstephen's  book 
is  also  of  use  as  a  contribution  to  the  history  of  London.] 

Flores  Historiarum  (from  the  Creation  to  1326).  Ed.  Luard,  H.  R.  Rolls 
Series.     3  vols.      1890.     Trans.  Yonge,  C.  D.      1853.     2  vols. 

Foliot,  Gilbert.  Epistolae.  Ed.  Giles,  J.  A.,  in  Patres  Ecclesiae  Anglicanae. 
2  vols.     1845. 

Gervase  of  Canterbury  (d.  about  1210),  The  Historical  Works  of  Ed.. 
Stubbs,  W.      Rolls  Series.     2  vols.      1879-80. 

Gervase  of  Tilbury.  Otia  Imperialia.  Ed.  Leibnitz,  G.  G.,  in  Vols,  i  and  11 
of  Scriptores  Rerum  Brunsvicensium.  Hanover,  1707-10.  Extracts 
ed.  by  Stevenson,  J.,  in  edition  of  Ralph  of  Coggeshall's  Chronicle. 
Rolls  Series.      1875. 


Chapter  IX  5oi 


Gesta    Regis   Henrici   Secundi    (1169-92).     Ed.    Stubbs,    W.     Rolls   Series. 

1867.     [Formerly  ascribed  to  Benedict  of  Peterborough.] 
Gesta  Stephani  (1135-47).     Ed.  Sewell,  R.  C,  for  Eng.  Hist.  Soc.     1846. 

Also  ed.  by  Hewlett,  R.     Rolls  Series.     1886.     Trans.  Forester  (with 

Henry  of  Huntingdon's  Chron.).      1853. 
Giraldus  Cambrensis  (d.  about  1220).     Opera.     Ed.  Brewer,  J.  S.,  Dimock, 

J.    F.    and  Warner,    G.    F.     Rolls    Series.     8  vols.     1861-91.     Trans. 

Forester,  T.  and  Hoare,  R.  C,  rev.  Wright,  T.     1863. 
Glanville,  Ranulf  de.     Tractatus  de  Legibus  etc.     Ed.  Phillips,  G.     2  vols. 

Berlin,  1827-8. 
Hemingburgh,  Walter  of.     Chronicon  (1048-1346).     Ed.  Hamilton,  H.  C, 

for  Eng.  Hist.  Soc.     2  vols.      1848-9. 
Henry  of  Huntingdon  (d.  about  1155).     Historia  Anglorum  (b.c.  55-A.D. 

1 1 54).     Ed.  Arnold,  Thos.     Rolls  Series.      1879.     Trans.  Forester,  T. 

•1853 
Hexham,  John  of.     Historia  (i  130-54).     Ed.  Arnold,  T.,  in  Vol.  11  of  Simeon 

of  Durham's  works.     Rolls  Series.      1885. 
Hexham,  Richard  of.     Historia  de  gestis  regis  Stephani  et  de  bello  de  stan- 

dardo  (i  135-9).     Ed.  Howlett,  R.     Chronicles  of  Stephen,  etc.     Vol. 

III.      Rolls  Series.      1886. 
Hoveden,  Roger  of  (d.  about  1201).     Chronica  (a.t>.  732-1201).     Ed.  Stubbs, 

W.     Rolls  Series.     4  vols.     Trans.  Riley,  H.  T.     2  vols.      1853. 
Jocelin  of  Brakelond.     Chronica  (1173-1203).     Ed.  Rokewode.  J.  G.     Cam- 
den Society.      1840.     Also  ed.  Arnold,  Thos.,  in  Vol.  i  of  Memorials 

of  St.  Edmund's  Abbey.      Rolls  Series.     3  vols.      1890-6.     Trans.  Tom- 

lins,  T.  E.,  in  Monastic  and  Social  Life  in  the  Twelfth  Century,  1844; 

and  Clarke,  Sir  E.,  1903. 
John  of  Salisbury.     Opera  omnia.     Ed.  Giles,  J.  A.,  in  Patres  Eccles.  Anglic. 

5  vols.     Oxford,  1848. 
Kirkstall,  Hugh  of  (fl.  1200).     Historian  of  Fountains  Abbey.     See  Gale  MS., 

Trinity  College,  Camb.,  and  Surtees  Society  text,  ed.     Walbran,  J.  R., 

1863. 
Malmesbury,  William  of.     De  Gestis  Regum  Anglorum  (449-1 127).     Historia 

Novella    (1125-42).     Ed.  Stubbs,    W.     Rolls  Series.     2    vols.    1887-9. 

Trans.     Giles,  J.  A.     1847. 
Map,  Walter.     De  Nugis  Curialium  (completed  about  1190.)     Ed.  Wright, 

T.     Camden  Society.      1850. 
Monmouth,  Geoffrey  of.      Historia  Regum  Britanniae.      Ed.   Giles,  J.   A. 

1844.     Also    ed.    by    San-Marte    (Schulz,    A.).     Halle,    1854.     Trans. 

Giles,  J.  A.,  in  Six  Old  English  Chronicles.     1848.     Also   trans.  Evans, 

Sebastian.     1903. 
Newburgh,    William   of.     Historia    Rerum    Anglicarum    (1066-1198).     Ed. 

Hamilton,  H.  C.     Eng.  Hist.  Soc.     2  vols.     1856.     Also  ed.  by  Howlett, 

R.,  in  Chronicles  of  Stephen  etc.      Rolls   Series.      1884-5. 
Niger,  Ralph  (fl.  1170).     Student  of  Paris  and  precursor  of   Ralph  Cogges- 

hall.     See  Caxton  Soc.  edition  of  his  Chronicles,  ed.  Anstruther,  R.,  185 1. 
Oxenedes  or  Oxnead,  John  de  (d.  12930-     For  the  Chronicle  attributed  to 

him  see  Liebermann  in  Mon.  Germ.  His.  Script,  xxviii. 
Paris,  Matthew.     Chronica  Majora  (from  the  Creation  to  1259).     Ed.  Luard, 

H.   R.     Rolls  Series.     7  vols.     1872-S3.     Historia  Anglorum   (mainly 

an    abridgment    from  the  Chronica  Majora).     Ed.   Madden,   F.    Rolls 

Series.     3  vols.      1866-9.     Trans.  Giles,  J.  A.     3  vols.      1852-4. 


502  Bibliography  to 

Peter  of  Blois.  Opsra  Omnia.  Ed.  Giles,  J.  A.,  in  Patres  Ecclesiae  Angli- 
canae  (35  vols.).     4  vols.     Oxford,  1846-7. 

Rievaulx,  Ailred  of.  Relatio  de  Standardo.  Ed.  Howlett,  R.,  in  Chronicles 
of  Stephen,  etc.  Rolls  Series.  1886.  For  other  printed  works,  see 
Migne's  Patrologia,  cxcv,  and  cf.  Jusserand,  J.  J.,  English  Essays  from  a 
French  Pen,  1895. 

Rishanger,  William.  Chronica  (1259-1306).  Ed.  Riley,  H.  T.  Rolls  Series. 
1865. 

Taxster  or  Tayster,  John  de.  Chronica  Abbreviata  (down  to  1265).  Ed. 
Thorpe,  B.,  in  Florence  of  Worcester's  Chronicle.  Eng.  Hist.  Soc. 
1849. 

Torigny,  Robert  of.  Chronica  (a.d.  94-1186).  Ed.  Howlett,  R.,  in  Chroni- 
cles of  Stephen,  etc.      Rolls  Series.      1889. 

Trevet,  Nicholas.  Annals  Sex  Regum  Angliae  (i  135-1307).  Ed.  Hog.  T. 
Eng.  Hist.  Soc.      1845. 

Trokelowe,  John  of.     Annales  (1307-25).     Chron.  Monast.  St.  Albani.     Vol. 

IV. 

Turgot  (d.  1 1 15).     [Bishop  of  St.  Andrews,  probably  author  of  the  Life  of 

St.  Margaret,  queen  of  Scotland.]     See  Acta  Sanctorum,  10  June,  and 

MS.,  Brit.  Mus.  Cott.  Tib.  D.  iii. 
Vitalis,  Ordericus.     Historia  Ecclesiastica  (a.d.   1-1141).     Ed.  Prevost,  A. 

le.      Societe  de  I'Histoire  de  France.     5  vols.     Paris,  1838-55.     Trans. 

Forester,  T.     4  vols.      1855-6. 
Wendover,  Roger  of .     Flores  Historiarum  (from  the  Creation  to  1235).      Ed. 

Coxe,    H.   O.     Eng.   Hist.    Soc.     4   vols.      184 1-4.     Also  ed.    Hewlett, 

H.  G.     Rolls  Series.     3  vols.     1886-9.     Trans.     Giles,  J.  A.     2   vols. 

1849. 
Worcester,  Florence  of.     Chronicon  ex  Chronicis  (down  to  11 17),  with  two 

continuations.     Ed.    Thorpe,    B.     Eng.    Hist.    Soc.     2    vols.      1848-9. 

Trans.     Forester,  T.      1854. 
Wykes,    Thomas.     Chronicon    (1066-1289).     Ed.    Luard,    H.    R.     Annales 

Monastici,  iv.     Rolls  Series.      1869. 

II.     Bibliographies 

Hardy,  T.  D.     Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Materials  relating  to  the  History  of 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  (to  1327).     3  vols,  in  4  parts.     Rolls  Series. 

1862-71. 
Gardiner,  S.  R.  and  Mullinger,  J.  B.     Introduction  to  the  study  of  English 

History.      1881. 
Gross,  C.     The  Sources  and  Literature  of  English  History  from  the  Earliest 

Times  to  about  1485.      1900.     See  esp.  Part  iv,  Ch.  i. 

III.     Biography  and  Criticism 

The  standard  biographies  of  the  Chroniclers  are  those  in  the  Dictionary 
of  National  Biography,  and  by  the  various  editors  of  the  publications  in  the 
Rolls  Series.  For  a  general  account  of  the  Chroniclers  the  Introductions  to 
Vols.  II  and  iii  of  T.  D.  Hardy's  Descriptive  Catalogue  are  of  high  value. 
Much  general  information  will  also  be  found  in  the  Introductions,  especially 
those  of  Stubbs  and  H.  R.  Luard,  to  the  Rolls  Series  editions  of  various 
Chroniclers.  The  best  popular  account  of  the  Chroniclers  is  that  of  J. 
Gairdner,  Early  Chroniclers  of  Europe  (England),  1879.  Good  brief  general 
accounts  are  also  given  in  the  following  works: 


I 


Chapter  X  503 

Potthast,  A.  Bibliotheca  Historica  Medii  Aevi.  2  vols.  2nd  edition. 
Berlin,  1896.  Morley,  H.  English  Writers.  Vol.  in.  1888.  Social 
England.  Ed.  Traill,  H.  D.  Vol.  i.  1893.  Freeman,  E.  A.  History 
of  the  Norman  Conquest.  Vol.  v.  Ch.  xxv.  Oxford,  1876.  Stubbs, 
W.  Lectures  on  Medieval  and  Modern  History.  (Lect.  vi  and  vii.) 
Oxford.  1886. 
For  individual  Chroniclers  the  following  are  of  value : 

Birch,  De  Gray.  Life  and  Writings  of  William  of  Malmesbury.  Reprinted 
from  Trans,  of  Royal  Soc.  of  Lit.,  vol.  x.  1874. 

Carlyle,  T.     Past  and  Present  (Jocelin  of  Brakelond).      1843. 

Church,  R.  W.     St.  Anselm.      (Ch.  vi,  Orderic  the  Chronicler.)      1895. 

Evans,  Sebastian.  Epilogue  to  Translation  of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  His- 
tory.     1903. 

Guizot,  F.  P.  G.  Preface  to  French  translation  (by  Dubois,  L.)  of  Ordericus 
Vitalis.      Histoire  de  Normandie.      4  vols.     Paris.      1825-7. 

Jessopp,  A.     Studies  by  a  Recluse  (St.  Albans  and  Her  Historian).     1893. 

Norgate,  K.  England  under  the  Angevin  Kings.  [Good  accounts  of  Wm. 
of  Malmesbury  and  Wm.   of  Newburgh.]     2  vols.      1887. 

Owen,  H.     Gerald  the  Welshman.      1904. 

Stubbs,  W.     Hist.  Introds.  to    Rolls  Series.     Ed.  Hassall,  A.     1902. 

CHAPTER  X 

ENGLISH  SCHOLARS  OF  PARIS  AND  FRANCISCANS  OF  OXFORD. 
LATIN  LITERATURE  OF  ENGLAND  FROM  JOHN  OF  SALIS- 
BURY TO  RICHARD  OF  BURY 

(A)     Original  Texts 

Alain  de  Lille.  (i)  Anti-Claudianus  in  Anglo-Latin  Satirical  Poets  and 
Epigrammatists  of  the  xiith  century,  vol.  11,  268-428,  ed.  in  Rolls 
Series  by  Wright,  Thomas.      1872. 

(2)  Commentary  on  the  prophecies  of  Merlin  in  Prophetia  Anglicana. 
Francofurti,  1603. 

(3)  Opera  omnia  in  Migne,  Patr.  Lat.,  vol.  ccx.     Paris,  1844,  etc. 
Alexander  of  Hales.      Summa  Theologiae,  Joh.   de  Colonia,  Venice,   1475; 

Nuremberg,  1482;  Venice,  1575;  Cologne,  1622.      MS.  of  his  Exposition 
of  the  Apocalypse,  in  Cambridge  University  Library,  Mm.  v.  31. 
Bacon,  Roger,     (i)  Opus  Majus,  ed.  Jebb,  Samuel,  1733;  ed.  Bridges,  J.  H., 
2  vols.,  Oxford,  1897;  supplementary  vol.,  London,  1900;  Preface  first 
printed  by  Gasquet,  F.  A,,  in  Eng.  Hist.  Rev.,  1897,  p.  516. 

(2)  Opera  Inedita,  viz.  Opus  Tertium,  Opus  Minus,  and  Compendium 
Philosophiae,  ed.  Brewer,  J.  S.,  in  Rolls  Series,  1859. 

(3)  Extracts  from  Computus  rerum  naturalium.  Opus  Majus,  Minus 
and  Tertium,  and  Compendium  Philosophiae  and  Theologiae  in  E. 
Charles,  Roger  Bacon,  pp.  335-416,  Paris,  1861. 

(4)  Greek  Grammar,  ed.  Nolan,  E.,  with  Introduction  by  Hirsch,  S. 
A.,  Cambridge,  1902. 

Baconthorpe,  John,  (i)  Opus  super  quattuor  Sententiarum  libris.  Paris, 
1484;  Milan,  1510  f. 

(2)  Quaestiones  in  quattuor  libros  Sententiarum.     Cremona,  1618. 

(3)  Aureum  Opusculum  (on  Aristotle's  Ethics,  Metaphysics,  and 
Politics).  Venice,  1509.  Commentaries  on  his  writings  by  Zagalia  in 
seven   folio    volumes,    Ferrara   and   Parma,    1696-1706;   and   in   three 


504  Bibliography  to 

volumes  by  Aymers,  H.,  Turin,  1667-9.     [See  also  Fuller,  Church  Histor>', 

Bk.  III.] 
Bartholomaeus  Anglicus.     De   Proprietatibus   Rerum,   Ulric  Zell,   Cologne, 

c.  1470;  Francfort,  1601 ;  E.  T.  by  Trevisa,  printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde, 

Westminster,  c.  1495. 
Bradwardine,  Thomas.     Arithmetica  et  Geometria  Speculativa,  Paris,  1502— 

30;  De  Causa  Dei,  ed.  Savile,  H.,  1618. 
Burleigh,  or  Burley,  Walter.     Liber  de  vita  ac  moribus  philosophorum,  MS. 

in  Library  of  Trinity  Coll.,  Cambridge  (O.  2.50;  no.  1154  M.  R.  James); 

1472,    Cologne    (and   several   early   editions   without   date);   latest   ed. 

(Stuttgart  Litterarischer  Verein,  vol.  177)  Tubingen,  1886. 
Canon,   or   Canonicus,  John    (fl.  1329).     Quaestiones  profundissimi  doctoris 

Johannis  Canonici  ordinis  minoris  super  octo  libris  Phisicorum  Aristotelis. 

Padua,  1475. 
Chartularium  Universitatis  Parisiensis,  4  vols.,  edd.  Denifle  and  Chatelain; 

Paris,  1889-97. 
Conyngton,  Richard  de  (d.  1330).     Oxford  and  Cambridge  Franciscan  school- 
man. 

(i)      Commentary  on  the  Sentences,   in  the  Vatican  (Wadding,  vii, 
168). 

(2)  Exposition  of  the  seven  penitential  psalms,   in  the   Bodleian, 
Selden,  supra  64,  fol.  160. 

(3)  Tractatus   .    .    .    de  paupertate  contra  opiniones  Fratris  Petri 
Joannis  (Olivi),  in  the  Laurentian,  xxxvi,  dext.  cod.  xii. 

Curson  of  Kedleston.      Reputed  author  of  (i)  a  Summa  Theologiae,  (2)  De 

Salvatione  Origenis,  etc. 
Dastin,  or  Daustin,  John  (fi.  1320).      (i)    Visio  super  artem  Alchemicam,  in 

H.  Condeesyanus,  Harmoniae    .    .    .    Chemico-Philosophicae  decas  i,  pt. 

2,  Frankfurt,  1625,  and  in  Theatrum  Chemicum,  Geneva,  1651;  E.  T.  in 

Ashmole's  Theatrum  Chemicum  Britannicum,  1652. 
Duns  Scotus,  Joannes,      (i)   Quaestiones,  1474,      (2)    Opuis  Oxoniense,  1481. 

(3)  De  Rerum  Principio,  Venice,  1497. 

(4)  De  Modis  Significandi  sive  Grammatica  Speculativa,  Venice,  1499. 

(5)  Opera,  ed.  Wadding,  etc.,  in  12  folio  volumes,  Lyons,  1639. 
Eccleston,   Thomas   de.      De   Adventu   Fratrum   Minorum   in   Angliam,    in 

Monumenta  Franciscana  (Rolls  Series),  ed.  Brewer,  J.  S.,  vol.  i,  pp.  1-72, 

1858. 
Gaddesden,  John  of  (d.  1361).     Rosa  Medicinae  (c.  1305-7).     Pavia,  1492. 

[Cf.  Chaucer's  Prologue,  434.] 
Garlandia,  Joannes  de.      (i)     De  Triumphis  Ecclesiae,  ed.  Wright,  T.,  Rox- 

burghe  Club,  1856. 

(2)  Opus  Synonymorum  in  Leyser,  Hist.  Poet.  Medii  Aevi,  p.  311, 
and  in  Migne,  Patrologia  Latina,  cl,  1577  f.,  Paris,  1854. 

(3)  Dictionarius  in  A.  Scheler's  Lexicographic  Latine,  Leipzig,  1867. 
Also  unpub.  MSS.  in  Library  of  Gonville  and  Caius  Coll.,  Cambridge. 

Geoffrey  de  Vinsauf,  Galfridus  de  Vino  Salvo.     Poetria  Nova,  in  P.  Leyser, 

Historia  Poetarum  et  Poematum  Medii  Aevi,  Halle,  1721,  pp.  862-978; 

also  separately,  ed.  Leyser,  P.,  1724. 
Gervase  of  Tilbury,      (i)    Otia  Imperialia,  Leibnitz,  Scriptores  Rerum  Bruns- 

vicensium,  1707,  i,  888,  975;  also  Supplementa,  11. 

(2)     Excerpts  in  Bouquet's  Recueil  des  HistoriensdesGaules,  1 738-76, 

vols.  XI  and  xiv. 


Chapter  X  505 

(3)  Annotated  Selections  in  Liebrecht,  F.,  Des  Gervasii  von  Tilbtiry 
Otia  Imperialia,  in  einer  Auswahl  neu  herausgegeben  mit  Anmerkungen 
begleitet,  Hanover,  1856. 

(4)  Excerpta  in  Radulphi  de  Coggeshall  Chron.  Angl.,  ed.  Stevenson, 
J.  (Rolls  Series),  1875. 

Gilbert  the  Englishman  (fl.  1250).  Compendium  Medicinae.  Lyons, 
1510. 

Giraldus  Cambrensis.  Opera  in  8  vols,  in  Rolls  Series,  1 861-91.  Vols.  1-4, 
ed.  Brewer,  J.  S.;  vol.  i  (1861),  De  Rebus  a  se  Gestis;  De  Invectionibus, 
books  v,  VI ;  Symbolum  Electorum;  Autobiography;  Letter  to  Stephen 
Langton,  and  to  the  Chapter  of  Hereford;  Shorter  Catalogue  of  his 
Works;  and  Retractationes;  vol.  2  (1862),  Gemma  Ecclesiastica; 
vol.  3  (1863),  De  Invectionibus,  books  i-iv;  De  Jure  et  Statu  Mene- 
vensis  Ecclesiae;  Vita  S.  Davidis,  S.  Ethelberti,  et  Davidis  II;  vol.  4 
(1873),  Speculum  Ecclesiae;  Vita  Galfridi  Archiepiscopi  Eboracensis. 
Vols.  5-7,  ed.  Dimock,  J.  F.;  vol.  5  (1861),  Topographia  Hibernica, 
and  Expugnatio  Hibernica;  vol.  6  (1868),  Itinerarium  Kambriae,  and 
Descriptio  Kambriae;  vol.  7,  ed.  Dimock,  J.  F.  and  Freeman,  E.  A. 
(1868-77),  Vita  S.  Remigii,  S.  Hugonis,  and  Appendix  of  Lincoln 
Documents.  Vol.  viii,  ed.  Warner,  G.  F.  (1891),  De  Principis  Institu- 
tione,  with  Index  to  vols.  1-4. 

Godfrey  of  Winchester.  Godofredi  Prioris  Epigrammata,  in  Anglo-Latin 
Satirical  Poets  and  Epigrammatists  of  the  xiith  century,  ed.  in  Rolls 
Series  by  Wright,  Thomas  1872,  vol.  11,  103-155. 

Grosseteste,  Robert.  Roberti  Grosseteste,  Episcopi  quondam  Lincolniensis 
Epistolae,  ed.  in  Rolls  Series  by  Luard,  H.  R.,  1861. 

Chateau  d' Amour,  ed.  Halliwell,  J.  O.,  1849;  in  Carmina  Anglo- 
Normannica,  ed.  Cooke,  M.,  Caxton  Soc,  1852;  E.  T.  ed.  Weymouth, 
R.  F.,  London  Phil.  Soc,  1864.  [See  the  bibliography  in  S.  Pegge's  Life 
of  Grosseteste,  1793,  and  Stevenson,  F.  S.,  on  Grosseteste.] 

Hauteville,  Jean  de.  Johannis  de  Altavilla  Architrenius,  in  Anglo-Latin 
Satirical  Poets  and  Epigrammatists  of  the  xiith  century,  vol.  i,  240— 
392,  ed.  in  Rolls  Series  by  Wright,  Thomas.  [Architrenius  is  of  con- 
siderable value  as  reflecting  the  social  conditions  of  the  day.] 

Henry  of  Huntingdon.  Epigrammata  in  Henrici  archidiaconi  historiae  liber 
undecimus,  in  Anglo-Latin  Satirical  Poets  and  Epigrammatists  of  the 
xiith  century,  vol.  11,  163-174,  ed.  in  Rolls  Series  by  Wright,  Thomas, 
1872. 

Henry  of  Saltrey.  Latin  prose  version  of  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick,  in 
Matthew  Paris,  Chronica  Majora,  11,  192-203  (ed.  Luard);  first  printed 
in  Massingham's  Florilegium  insulae  sanctae  Hibemiae,  Paris,  1624, 
pp.  84  flf. 

Hilarius.  Hilarii  versus  et  ludi,  ed.  J.  J.  Champollion-Figeac,  Paris,  1838; 
extracts  in  Wright's  Biographia  Britannica  Literaria. 

Holkot,  Robert  of  (d.  1349).  (i)  Quaestiones,  on  Peter  Lombard's 
Sentences.     Lyons,  1497,  etc. 

(2)  Conferentiae.     ib. 

(3)  Moralitates  Historiarum.     Venice,  1505. 

Hoveden,  John,  (i)  Philomela  sive  meditacio,  on  the  Life  of  Christ. 
Ghent,  15 16. 

(2)  Poem  beginning  "Philomela,  praevia  temporis  amoeni." 
Printed  in   the  works   of   S.  Bonaventura,    e.g.    vi,    445  Venice;    E.  T- 


5o6  Bibliography  to 

(c.  1460)  in  Cotton  MS.,  Cal.  A.  11,  59  f.     [Bibliography  in  Leyser's  His- 
toria  Poetarum    .    .    .   Medii  Aevi,  1721,  pp.  1006-8,  and  in  D.  N.  B.] 
John  of  Salisbury.     Joannes  Saresberiensis,  Opera,  (i)  ed.  Giles,  J.  A.,  in 
5  vols.,  Oxford  and  London,    1848;   (2)  in  Migne,  Patrologia  Latina, 
vol.  cxcix,  Paris,  1855. 

(3)  Entheticus.  Johannis  Saresberiensis  Entheticus  de  dogmate 
philosophorum  nunc  primum  editus  et  commentariis  instructus  a  Chris- 
tian Petersen,  Hamburg,  1843. 

(4)  Policraticus,  ed.  Webb,  C.  C.  J.,  Oxford,  announced  in  1906. 

(5)  Historia  Pontificalis,  ed.  Pertz,  in  Mon.  Germ.  Hist,  xx,  517-545 
(cf.  Giesebrecht,  in  Sitzungsb.    Munich  Acad.  1873,  p.  124). 

Joseph  of  Exeter,  (i)  Josephus  Iscanus,  De  Bello  Trojano,  once  current 
under  the  names  of  Dares  Phrygius  and  Cornelius  Nepos  (Basel,  1541, 
etc.);  first  published  as  the  work  of  Josephus  Iscanus  by  Joannes 
Thymius,  Frankfurt,  1620;  also  London,  1675. 

(2)  De  Josepho  Exoniensi  vel  Iscano  thesim  proponebat  J.  J.  Jus- 
serand;  accedunt  de  Bello  Trojano  poematis  liber  i,  necnon  notulae 
s.  xiii  conscriptae,  Paris,  1877. 

(3)  Fragment  of  12  lines  of  Antiocheis  in  Camden's  Britannia,  end 
of  notes  to  Book  iii. 

Kilwardby,  Robert,  (i)  Commentary  on  Priscian,  books  i-xv,  in  Cam- 
bridge University  Library,  MS.,  Kk.  3.  20. 

(2)  Thirty-nine  treatises  on  philosophy  (Haureau,  La  Philosophic 
Scolastique,  11,  ii,  29). 

Langton,  Stephen,  (i)  Many  commentaries,  etc.,  on  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge  MSS. 

(2)  Documenta  Clericorum.     Latin  poem  in  Bodl.  MS.,  57,  f.  66  b. 

(3)  Sermon  in  Latin  and  French.  British  Museum,  Arundel,  292  f. 
38.     [He  is  credited  with  the  division  of  the  Bible  into  chapters.] 

Lavenham,  Richard  (fi.  1380),  Carmelite  friar  at  Ipswich,  prior  of  the 
Carmelites  in  Bristol;  studied  at  Oxford;  reputed  author  of  more  than 
60  treatises  on  scholastic  philosophy,  etc.  MS.  of  "De  Causis  Naturali- 
bus"  in  Cambridge  University  Library,  Hh.  iv,  13,  55  f. 

Lawrence  of  Durham,  (i)  Hypognosticon  sive  Memoriale  Veteris  et  Novi 
Testamenti,  MSS.  in  Bodleian,  British  Museum,  Lambeth,  York,  and 
Durham.     Extracts  in  J.  Raine's  edition  of  the  Dialogues. 

(2)     Dialogues.     Ed.  Raine,  J.,  in  Surtees  Society.     Vol.  Lxx.      1880. 

Map,  Walter,  (i)  Gualteri  Mapes  de  Nugis  Curialium,  edited  from  the 
unique  MS.  in  the  Bodleian  by  Wright,  Thomas  (Camden  Society,  1850). 

(2)  The  Latin  Poems  commonly  attributed  to  Walter  Mapes,  col- 
lected and  edited  by  Wright,  Thomas  (Camden  Society,  1841). 

(3)  La  Queste  del  Saint-Graal,  in  the  French  poem  of  (as  is  supposed) 
Gautiers  Map,  or  Walter  Map,  ed.  Furnivall  (Roxburghe  Club,  1864). 

Marsh,  Adam.  Adae  de  Marisco  Epistolae,  in  Monumenta  Franciscana, 
I,  77-489,  ed.  Brewer,  J.  S.,  in  the  Rolls  Series,  1858. 

Neckam,  Alexander,  (i)  De  Naturis  Rerum,  and  (2)  elegiac  poem,  De 
Laudibus  Divinae  Sapientiae,  ed.  Wright,  Thomas,  in  Rolls  Series, 
1863. 

(3)  Elegiac  poem  De  Vita  Monachorum,  in  Anglo-Latin  Satirical 
Poets,  II,  175-200,  ed.  Wright,  Thomas,  in  Rolls  Series,  1872. 

(4)  De  Utensilibus,  ed.  Scheler,  A.,  Lexicographic  Latine,  Leipzig, 
1867. 


^ 


I 


Chapter  X  507 

(5)     Vocabularium  biblicum  and  Repertorium  vocabulorum,  unpub- 
lished. 
Nigel  Wireker.     (i)     Speculum  Stultorum,  in  Anglo-Latin  Satirical  Poets, 
I,  H-145,  ed.  Wright,  Thomas,  in  Rolls  Series,  1872. 
(2)     Contra  Curiales  et  OfFiciales  Clericos,  ib.  146-230. 
Ockham,  William  of.      (a)  Philosophical  and  Theological  Works. 

(i)     Expositio  Aurea  super  totam  artem  Veterem,  Bologna,  1496. 

(2)  Summa  logices,  Paris,  1488. 

(3)  Quaestiones  in  octo  libros  physicorum,  Rome,  1637. 

(4)  Summulae  in  octo  libros  physicorum,  Venice,  1506. 

(5)  Quaestiones  in  quattuor  libros  Sententiarum,  Lyons,  1495. 

(6)  Quodlibeta  septem,  Paris,  1487. 

(7)  De  Sacramento  Altaris,  and  De  Corpore  Christi,  Argent.  1491. 

(8)  Centilogium  theologicum,  Lyons,  1495,  ^t  end  of  (5). 
(b)     Political  works. 

(i)     Opus  nonaginta  dierum,  Louvain,  1481 ;  Lyons,  1495  (  =Dialogus 
part  iii,  tract  vi). 

(2)  Dialogus...de  Imperatorum  et  Pontificum  Potestate,  Lyons,  1495. 

(3)  Defensorium  contra  Johannem  XXII,  Venice,  1513. 

(4)  Adversus  errores  Johannis  XXII,  Louvain,   1481;  Lyons,   1495. 

(5)  De  jurisdictione   Imperatoris,   Heidelberg,    1598.     [Cf.   also  the 
writings  of  John  Walsingham.] 

Peter  of  Blois,  ed.  Giles,  J.  A.,  in  Patres  Eccl.  Angl.,  London,  Oxford  and 

Paris,  1846  f. ;  also  in  Migne,  Patrologia  Latina,  vol.  ccvii,  Paris,  1855. 
Peckham,  John,      (i)     Perspectiva  Communis,  Milan,  1482. 

(2)  Philomela.     Cf.  Hoveden,  John  (2),  supra. 

(3)  De  Summa  Trinitate  et  Fide  Catholica,  1510. 

(4)  Divinarum  Sententiarum... Collectarium,  Paris,  15 13. 

(5)  Registrum  Epistolarum,  3  vols.,  ed.  Martin,  C.  T.,  in  Rolls  Series, 
1882-5. 

List  of  unpublished  works  in  Martin's  Preface  to  Registrum,  vol.  iii 
(1885),  with  additions  in  A.  G.  Little's  Grey  Friars  in  Oxford,  156. 

Pullen,  Robert,      (i)     Sententiarum  Theologicarum  libri  viii.     Paris,  1655, 
and  in  Migne,  Patrologia  Latina,  t.  clxxxvi,  col.  639  f. 
(2)      Sermones,  in  Lambeth  Library,  no.  458. 

Reginald  of  Canterbury.  Life  of  St.  Malchus,  in  leonine  hexameters,  in 
the  British  Museum  (Cotton  MS.,  Vesp.  E.  iii),  and  in  the  Bodleian. 

Rich,  Edmund.      St.  Edmund  of  Abingdon.     Speculum  Ecclesiae.      152 1. 

Richard  of  Bury.  Philobiblon,  Cologne,  1473  etc.;  ed.  Cocheris,  H.,  with 
French  trans.,  Paris,  1856;  ed.  Thomas,  E.  C,  with  biographical  and 
bibliographical  Introduction,  and  E.  T.,  1888;  1903. 

Robert  of  Cricklade.  (i)  Life  of  Becket,  used  by  the  author  of  the  Ice- 
landic Thomas  Saga. 

(2)      Defloratio  Pliniana.     MSS.  in  British  Museum,  and  at  Eton,  and 
Wolfenbuttel;  cp.  K.   Ruck,  in  S.  Ber.  Munich  Acad.  3  Mai  1902,  pp. 

195  f- 
Robert  of  Melun.     Summa  Theologiae  (or  Summa  Sententiarum) ;  extracts  in 

Haureau,  La  Philosophic  Scolastique,  i,  492-3. 
Sacro  Bosco  (Holywood?),  Johannes  de.     Tractatus  de  Sphaera.     Ferrara, 

1472.     [More  than  64  editions  before  1647.] 
Scot,  Michael,      (i)     Liber  Physiognomiae,  (Venice)  1477. 

(2)     Trans,  of  Aristotle,  De  Animalibus,  included  in  Venice  ed.  1496. 


5o8  Bibliography  to 

(3)     Quaestio  Curiosa  de  Natura  Solis  et  Lunae,  in  vol.  v  of  Theatrum 

Chemicum,  Strassburg,  1622. 
Shirwood,  William  (fl.  1260).     Credited  with  Distinctiones  Theologicae,  and 

Conciones,  and  with  a  work  Super  Sententias  (seen  by  Leland  in  the 

Dominican  library  at  Exeter). 
Thomas  de  Bungay.     De  celo  et  mundo.     MS.  in  Caius  College,  Cambridge, 

509   §  3- 
Tournay,  Simon  of.     Three  vols,  of  lectures  in  Balliol  and  Merton  MSB. 
Wallensis,  John  (fi.  1283).     MS.  of  his  Summa  Collectionum  in  Peterhouse 

library,  no  18,  i   (237);  nineteen  other  works  in  MS.  (op.  Little's  Grey 

Friars  in  Oxford,  1 44-1 51). 
Wallensis,  Thomas,  bishop  of  St.   David's.     Campus  Florum,  short  tracts 

from   the   Fathers   and   the   Canonists,    in   Peterhouse   library,   no.    86 

(243)- 
Walsingham,  John  (d.  1340?).     MS.  in  C.C.C.  Oxon.     Joannis  Walsyngham 

quaestiones  octo  disputatae  apud  Cantabrigiam  et  Norwicum. 
Walter  of  Evesham  (fi.  1320).     (i)     De  Speculatione  Musices  (C.C.C.  Camb. 

MS.,  401),  in  Coussemaker's  Scriptores  de  Musica,  vol.  i,  182  f.,  Paris, 

1863. 

(2)     Astronomical  tracts  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge  MSS. 
William  de  la  Mare,  Oxford  Franciscan  (fl.  1284).      Bibliography  of  MSS.  in 

Little's  Grey  Friars  in  Oxford,  217  f.;  cp.  Denifle,  in  Archiv  f.  Litt.  des 

Mittelalters,  1888,  p.  545;  and  Gasquet,  F.  A.,  in  Dublin  Review,  1898, 

p.  21. 

(B)  Bibliographies 

Wright,  Thomas.      Biographia  Britannica  Literaria,  Anglo-Norman  Period, 

1846. 
Grober,    Gustav.     Grundriss   der  romanischen   Philologie,   with   Survey   of 
Latin  literature  from  550  to  1350  a.d.,  including  paragraphs  on  England, 
in  vol.  II,  97-432,  esp.  181-427  (1000-1350  a.d.),  Strassburg,  1902. 
Bibliographies  are  also  included  in  the  works  to  which  (b)  is  prefixed 
in  the  following  list. 

(C)  Modern  Works 
Adamson,  R.,  on  Roger  Bacon,  in  Ency.  Brit.     Vol.  in. 
Brewer,  J.  S.     Prefaces  to  Monumenta  Franciscana  i,  Rogeri  Baconis  Opera 

Inedita,  and  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  in  Rolls  Series,  1859-61. 
Brown,  J.  Wood.     Michael  Scot.     Edinburgh,  1897. 
Budinszky,  Alexander.      Die  Universitat  Paris  und  die  Fremden  an  derselben 

im  Mittelalter.      Berlin,  1876. 
Charles,  Emile.      Roger  Bacon,  sa  vie,  ses  ouvrages,  ses  doctrines,  d'aprcs 

des  textes  in6dits.     Paris,  1861. 
Denifle.     Die  Entstehung  der  Universitaten  des  Mittelalters  bis  1 400.     Berlin, 

1885. 
Gasquet,  F.  A.     English  Biblical  Criticism,  and  English  Scholarship  in  the 

Thirteenth  Century,  in  Dublin  Review,  1898,  1-2 1,  356-373.     Dublin,        1 

1898. 
Gladstone,  W.  E.     The  Romanes  Lecture,  1892;  An  Academic  Sketch.     Ox- 
ford, 1892. 
Haureau,  B.      La  Philosophic  Scolastique  (1850).      Ed.  2.     Paris,  1872-80. 
Jessopp,   A.     The   Coming  of  the   Friars   (pp.    1-52)   and  other  Historical 

Essays.      1889. 


Chapter  XI  509 

Jusserand,  J.  J.     Literary  History  of  the  English  People,  i,  157-203.      1895. 
Little,  A.  G.     The  Grey  Friars  in  Oxford,  (i)  A  History  of  the  Convent. 

(2)  Biographical  Notices  of  the  Friars,  Oxford  Historical  Society.  1892. 
Luard,  H.  R.     Preface  to  Grosseteste's  Epistolae  in  the  Rolls  Series.     186 1. 
Morley,  H.     English  Writers,  vols,  in  and  iv,  38-67.      1888-9. 
Mullinger,  J.  B.     The  University  of  Cambridge,  vol.  i,  1-2 12.     Camb.,  1873. 
Owen,  H.     Gerald  the  Welshman;  new  and  enlarged  ed.      1904. 
Pauli,    R.     (i)  Bischof   Grossteste   und   Adam    Marsch.     Tubingen,    1864; 

(2)    Geschichte   von   England,  vol.  in   in   Gesch.    der   Europ.    Staaten. 

1834  ff. 
Poole,  R.  L.     (i)  Illustrations  of  the  History  of  Medieval    Thought,  1884; 

and  (2)  in  Traill's  Social  England,  vol.  i,  chaps,  iii-iv,  332-43,  429-40. 
Prantl,  C.     Geschichte  der  Logik  im  Abendlande,  vol.  11,  ed.  2.     Leipzig, 

1861. 
Rashdall,  H.     Universities  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages,  vols,  i  and  11  (in 

two  parts),  with  Maps  of  Old  Paris  and  Old  Oxford.     Oxford,  1895. 
Sandys,  J.  E.     History  of  Classical  Scholarship  from  the  Sixth  Century  B.C. 

to  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Chapters  28-31.     Cambridge,  1903.      2nd 

ed.  1906. 
Schaarschmidt,  C.     Joannes  Saresberiensis,  nach  Leben  und  Studien,  Schrif- 

ten  und  Philosophie.     Leipzig,  1862. 
Schofield,  W.  H.     English  Literature  from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  Chaucer, 

pp.  26-1 10  etc.     1906. 
Searle,  W.  G.     A  critical  examination  of  the  Letters  ascribed  to  Peter  of 

Blois,  in  manuscript,  not  published. 
Stevenson,  F.  S.      Robert  Grosseteste,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  a  Contribution  to 

the  Religious,  Political  and  Intellectual  Life  of  the  Thirteenth  Centur5^ 

1899. 
Stubbs,  W.     Literature  and  Learning  at  the  Court  of  Henry  II,  Lectures 

VI  and  VII  in  "Seventeen  Lectures."     Oxford,  1886,  etc. 
Thurot,  Ch.     De  I'organisation  de  I'enseignement  dans  I'Universite  de  Paris 

au  moyen  age.     Paris,  1850. 
Ueberweg,  F.     History  of  Philosophy,  i,  pp.  365-464,  E.T.,  1872. 
Warton,  T.     History  of  English  Poetry.      Dissertation  on  the  Introduction  of 

Learning  into  England.      1774,  1840,  etc. 
Wright,  Thomas,      (i)   Prefaces  to  Satirical  Poets  of  the  Twelfth  Century 

(1872),  and  Alexander  Neckam  (1863),  in  Rolls  Series;  also  to  Walter 

Map  (1841,    1850)     and  (2)  History  of   Caricature ...  in   Literature... 

pp.  159-176,  1S65. 

CHAPTER    XI 

EARLY  TRANSITION  ENGLISH 

(i)     Texts 

An  Bispel.     Morris,  R.     E.E.T.S.  xxix,  231. 

Ancren  Riwle.     Oldest  MS.,  C.C.C.C.     Other  MSS.,  Brit.  Mus.  etc.     Morton, 

J.     Camden  Soc.  1853.     Extr.  Morris,  Spec,  i,   no.     Trans.  Gasquet. 

1905.     Napier,  A.  S.,  Journal  of  Germ.  Phil.,  11,  19. 
Assumptio  Mariae.     Lumby,  J.R.     E.E.T.S.  xiv.  xlix.     Cf.  E.  Stud,  vii,  iff. 
Benedictine  Rule  for  Nuns  of  Winteney.     Schroer,  Halle,  1888. 
Bestiary.     MS.  Arundel,  292.    Morris.  E.E.T.S.  xlix,  Rel.  Ant.  i,  208.    Extr. 

Morris,  Spec,  i,  133. 


5^0  Bibliography  to 

Body  and  Soul,  Debate  of  the.     Matzner,  E.,  Sprachpr.  i,  90  ff. 

Cantus  Beati  Godrici.      Reginald  of  Coldingham's  Life  of  St.   Godric,  ed. 

Stevenson,  Surtees  Soc.     Zupitza,  J.,  E.  Stud,  xi,  401  ff. 
Canute  Song.     Hist.  El.  11,  27,  Gale,  p.  505.     Ten  Brink,  History  of  Eng. 

Lit.,  trans.     Vol.  i,  148. 
Compassio  Mariae.     Napier.     E.E.T.S.  cm,  75  ff.     Archiv,  lxxxviii,  181  ff. 
Doomsday.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xlix,  162. 
XI  Pains  of  Hell.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xlix,  147,  210.     Archiv,  lxii,  403  ff. 

Percy  Soc.  xiv  (1844). 
XV  Signs  before  Doomsday.    Furnivall,  F.  J.    Early  English  Poems.     Matz- 
ner, E.     Stengel,  E.,  Halle,  187 1. 
Five  Joys  of  the  Virgin.     Prayer  to  our  Lady.     Song  to  the  Virgin.     Prayer 

to  the  Virgin.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xlix,  87,  192,  194,  195. 
Genesis  and  Exodus.     MS.,  C.C.C.C.  444-     Morris.    E.E.T.S.  vii.    Extr.  Mor- 
ris, Spec.  I,  153-170. 
Hali  Meidenhad.     Cockayne,  O.     E.E.T.S.  xviii. 
Homilies,    Old    English.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.    xxix,    xxxiv    (see    also   liii). 

Extr.  Morris,  Spec,  i,  i  ff. 
Hwon  holy  chireche  is  vnder  uote.      Sinners  Beware.     On  Serving  Christ. 

Lutel    soth    sermun.     Long    Life.     Death.     Signs   of    Death.     Morris. 

E.E.T.S.  xlix,  72,  89,  90,  loi,  141,  156,  168,  186. 
In  Diebus  Dominicis.     Morris,  R.     E.E.T.S.  xxix,  41  ff. 
Layamon's  Brut.    MSS.,  Brit.  Mus.  Cott.  Calig.  A.  ix  and  Otho  cxiii.  Madden, 

F.     1847.     3  vols.     Extr.  Morris,  Spec,  i,  64. 
On  Lofsong  of  ure  Lef di.    On  God.    Ureisun  of  ure  Lefdi.    Morris.     E.E.T.S. 

xxix,  205,  191.     Extr.  Morris,  Spec,  i,  129. 
Ormulum.     MS.,  Junius  i.  Bodl.  (probably  the  author's  own  copy).     White, 

R.  M.,  1852.     Re-ed.  Holt,  R.     2  vols.     Oxford,  1878.     Extr.  Morris, 

Spec.  I,  39-63. 
Owl  and  Nightingale.     MSS.,  Cott.  Calig.  A.  ix  and  Jesus  Coll.,  Oxf.  29. 

Stevenson,     J.     Roxburghe     Club.      1838.     Wright,     T.     Percy     Soc. 

1843.     Stratmann,  F.  H.     Krefeld,  1868.     Wells,  J.  E.     Boston,  1907. 

Extr.  Morris,  Spec,  i,  171. 
Passion  of  our  Lord.     Woman  of  Samaria.    Morris.    E.E.T.S.    xlix,  37-84. 
Paternoster.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xxix. 
Poema    Morale.     For    MSS.  see  below.     Furnivall,    F.    J.     Early    English 

Poems.      1862.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xxxiv.     Zupitza,  J.,  Anglia,  i,  6  ff. 

Crit.  ed.     Lewin,  H.     Halle,  1881.     Extr.  Morris,  Spec,  i,  194.     [The 

MSS.  of  this  poem  transcribed  during  different  periods  are  of  value  as 

showing  the  development  of  English  prosody.] 
Proverbs  of  Alfred.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xlix,    Reliquiae  Antiquae,  i,    170. 

Extr.  Morris,  Spec,  i,  146-152. 
St.  Juliana,  Life  of.     Cockayne,  T.  O.  and  Brock,  E.     E.E.T.S.  li.     Extr. 

Morris,  Spec,  i,  96  ff. 
St.  Katherine,  Life  of.     Einenkel.     E.E.T.S.  lxxx.     Cf.  Paris,  G.,  Romania, 

XIII. 

St.  Paul,  Vision  of.     E.E.T.S.  xlix,  app.  iii.     Hortsmann,  C,  Archiv,  lii,  ^2. 
Sawles  Warde.     Morns.     E.E.T.S.  xxix,  245  ff.     Morris,  Spec,  i,  87. 
Seinte  Marharete.     Cockayne,  O.     E.E.T.S.  xiii. 
Sermons,  Old  Kentish.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xlix,  26  ff.     Extr.  Morris,  Spec. 

I,  141-5- 
Vices  and  Virtues.     Holthausen,  F.     E.E.T.S.  lxxxix. 


Chapter  XI 


=^ii 


Wil  and  Wit.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xlix,  192. 

Wohunge  of  ure  Louerde.     On  Lofsong  of  ure  Louerde.     On  Ureisun  of  oure 

Louerde.     Morris.     E.E.T.S.  xxix,  269,  209,  183.     Extr.  Morris,  Spec. 

I,  124.     Cf.  Ker,  below  (Ancren  Riwle). 

(2)     Critical   Essays   and   Articles,   etc. 

An  Bispel.  Sawles  Warde.  Vollhardt  (see  O.  E.  Homilies  below);  also  E. 
Stud.  XII,  459. 

Ancren  Riwle.  Miihe,  T.  Gottingen,  1901.  P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  i,  209  ff.; 
E.  Stud.  Ill,  535  ff.;  VII,  204  ff.;  ix.  115  ff.;  xix.  Bramlette,  E.  E.,  in 
Anglia,  XV.  Ker,  W.  P.,  Essays  on  Medieval  Literature.  1905.  [It  has 
been  urged  that  the  oldest  text  is  much  earlier  than  the  thirteenth 
century.] 

Assumptio  Mariae.     TJber  die  alteste  M.  E.  version  der  A.  M.     E.  Stud,  vii, 

4ff. 

Benedictine  Rule  for  the  Nuns  of  Winteney .  Gottingische  Gelehrte  Anzeigen 
(1888),    1013.     Cf.  ante,  bibliography  to  Chapter  vii,  p.  493- 

Bestiary.     Anglia,  ix,  391.     Anglia,  Beiblatt,  x,  274  ff. 

Body  and  Soul,  Debate  of.  Anglia,  11,  225  ff.  MLN.  (1890),  p.  193.  Cf. 
Wright,  T.,  Latin  Stories;  Boddeker,  K.,  Altenglische  Dichtungen,  Ber- 
lin, 1878. 

Genesis  and  Exodus.  E.  Stud,  viii,  273 :  1st  der  A.  E.  Story  of  Genesis  und 
Exodus  das  Werk  eines  Verfassers?  Fritzsche,  Anglia,  v,  42-90.  Ar- 
chiv,  cvii,  317-92.     Schumann,  Anglia,  Anz.  vi. 

Here  Prophecy.     See  Hales,  J.  W.,  Folia  Litteraria,  pp.  55-61. 

Homilies,  Old  English.  Vollhardt.  Einfiuss  der  lateinischen  geistlichen 
Litteratur  auf  einige  kleinere  Schopfungen  der  englischen  Ubergangs- 
periode.     Leipzig,  1888. 

Layamon's  Brut.  Imelmann.  Layamon  Versuch  tiber  seine  Quellen.  Ber- 
lin, 1906.  Spruch  und  Bild  im  Layamon.  Angl.  i,  147  ff.  Trautmann, 
M.  tjber  den  Vers  Layamons.  Anglia,  11.  Cf.  also,  Anglia  Anz.  v  and 
viii,  and  Luick,  K.,  in  Paul's  Grundriss,  11;  Wiilker,  R.,  Ueber  die 
Quellen  Layamons,  P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  iii,  524-55;  Brown,  A.  C.  L.,  Welsh 
Traditions  in  Layamon's  Brut.,  Mod.  Phil,  i,  i,  95-103;  Fletcher,  R.  H., 
Did  Layamon  make  any  use  of  Geoffrey's  Historia?  MLA.  xvii,  91-94; 
Morley,  H.,  English  Writers,  iii;  Luhmann,  A.,  in  Stud.  z.  Engl.  Phil., 
Halle,  1906. 

Ormulum.  Sarrazin.  Ueber  die  Quellen  des  Ormulum.  E.  Stud,  vi,  1-27. 
Napier,  A.  S.  Notes  on  the  orthography  of  the  Ormulum.  E.E.T.S.  cm. 
Cf.  also  E.  Stud,  i,  i;  Tyrwhitt's  Chaucer,  1775;  Effer,  H.,  Anglia, 
vii;  Athenaeum,  19  May,  1906  ff.;  Reichmann,  H.,  in  Stud.  z.  Engl. 
Phil..  Halle,  1906. 

Owl  and  Nightingale.  Borsch.  Ueber  Metrik  und  Poetik.  Munster,  1883. 
Noelle.  Die  Sprache,  etc.  Gottingen,  1870.  Atkins,  J.  W.  H.  Studies 
on  the  Owl  and  Nightingale  (Unpublished)  1905,  and  Notes,  Athenaeum, 
p.  83,  20  Jan.  1906.  [Cf.  also  the  Latin  Debates,  e.g.  De  Phillide  et 
Flora,  etc.,  and  Anglo-Norman  debates,  e.g,  Melior  et  Idoine  (Neilson, 
W.  A.,  Origin  and  Sources  of  the  Court  of  Love,  Harvard  Studies,  vi); 
and  also  the  metrically  interesting  disputes  in  the  Vernon  MS.] 

Poema  Morale.  Anglia,  Anz.  iv,  85  ff.  AnnaC.  Paues.  A  newly  discovered 
manuscript  of  the  Poema  Morale.     Anglia  xxx,  217-238. 


512  Bibliography  to 

Proverbs  of  Alfred.     P.  u.  B.'s  Beitr.  i,  240  ff.     Anglia,  iii,  370.     Kemble,  J. 

Dialogue  of  Salomon  and  Saturnus.      1848. 
St.  Katherine,  Life  of.      Cf.  Einenkel's  Ueber  den  Verfasser  der  neuangel- 

sachsischen  Legende  von  Katherina.     Anglia,  v,  91  ff. 
St.    Paul,    Vision    of.     E.    Stud,    i,  295  ff.     Kolbing,  E.  Stud,  xxii,   134. 

Brandes,  H.     Visio  St.  Pauli.     Halle,  1885.     E.  Stud,  vii,  34H3s. 

(3)     Works  of   Reference 

Alredi  abbatis  Monasterii  de  Rieualle  (informacia)  ad  sororem  suam  inclusam 
translata  de  Latino  in  Anglicum  per  Thomas  M.  E.  Stud,  vii,  304-344. 

Bestiaries,  etc.  [Thaun,  P.  de.  For  Li  Cumpoz  or  Calendar  (c.  1 1 13)  see  ed. 
Mall,  E.,  Strassburg,  1873.  For  the  Bestiaire  see  Wright,  T.,  Popular 
Treatises  on  Science,  1841;  ed.  Walberg,  E.,  Lund,  1900;  and  Mann,  M. 
F.,  Der  Physiol,  d.  P.  v.  T.  u.  seine  Quellen,  in  Anglia,  vii;  Le  Bestiaire 
d'amour  par  Richard  de  Fournival,  ed.  Hippeau,  C,  Paris,  i860;  Le 
Bestiaire  divin  de  Guillaume  le  Clerc,  ed.  Hippeau,  C,  Caen,  1852.  Cf. 
also  Reinsch,  R.,  Das  Thierbuch  des  Norm.  Dichters,  G.  le  C,  Leipzig, 
1890.  Julleville,  L.  P.  de.  Hist.  Lang.  Litt.  Fr.  11,  214,  should  be  re- 
ferred to  for  a  bibliography  of  Lapidaries  and  other  didactic  literature 
of  the  Middle  Ages.] 

Brandl,  A.  Mittelenglische  Litteratur  in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  germ.  Phil. 
II,  609-736.     Strassburg,  1893. 

Cutts.     Scenes  and  Characters  of  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  120-151. 

Eckenstein,  L.     Woman  under  Monasticism.     Cambridge,  1896. 

Forster,  M.     Friihmittelenglische  Sprichworter.     Eng.  Stud.  xxxi. 

Gropp,  E.     On  the  Language  of  the  Proverbs  of  Alfred.     Halle.  1879. 

Jeanroy,  A.  Les  origines  de  la  poesie  lyrique  en  France  au  Moyen-age. 
Paris,  1889.     Deuxieme  partie,  1904. 

Lauchert,    F.     Uber   das   englische   Marienlied   im    13    Jahr.      Eng.   Stud. 

XVI. 

Malmesbury,  Wm.  of.  [An  early  rimed  curse  is  found  in  W.  of  M.,  said  to 
have  been  uttered  by  Aldred,  abp.  of  York,  against  a  Norman  of  Wor- 
cester, for  building  a  castle  too  close  to  a  monastery: 

High  test  thou  Urse; 
Have  thou  God's  curse.] 

Matzner,  E.     AltengHsche  Sprachproben.     Berlin,  1867. 

Morsbach,  L.     Mittelenglische  Grammatik,  pp.  7-1 1.     Halle,  1896. 

Prior,  E.  S.     History  of  Gothic  Art  in  England.      1900. 

Saintsbury,  G.     Flourishing  of  Romance  and  Rise  of  Allegory.      1897. 

Saintsbury,  G.     History  of  English  Prosody.     Vol.  i.     1906. 

Schofield,  W.  H.     Eng.  Lit.  from  Norm.  Conq.  to  Chaucer,   1906,     [Good 

bibliography.     See  on  Debates,  pp.  424,  485.] 
Ten  Brink,  B.     Gesch.  der  engl.  Litt.     2nd.  ed.,  Brandl,  A.     Strassburg, 

1899.     Vol.  I,  ist  ed.  trans.  Kennedy,  H.  M.      1888. 
Wace's  Roman  de  Brut.     Ed.  Le  Roux  de  Lincy.     2  vols.     Rouen,  1836-8. 
Warton,  T.     History  of  English  Poetry.      1774,  1840,  1871,  etc. 
Wright,  T.     Popular  Treatises  on  Science  written  during  the  Middle  Ages. 

1841  [for  Bestiaries,  etc.]. 
Wtilker,  R.     Gesch.  der  engl.  Litt.     Leipzig,  1896.     2nd  ed.      1906. 


^:. 


Chapter  XII  5^3 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  ARTHURIAN  LEGEND 
(See  also  the  bibliographies  to  the  three  following  chapters.) 

I.     Texts 

A.  Latin 

Annales  Cambriae.     Ed.  Phillimore,  E.,  in  Y  Cymmrodor,  Journal  of  the 

Hon.  Society  of  Cymmrodorion.     Vol.  ix.      1888. 
Cambro-British  Saints,  Lives  of  the.     Ed.  with  translations  by  Rees,  W.  J. 

Welsh  MSS.  Society,  1853. 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth.     Historia  Regum  Britanniae.     Ed.  Schulz,  A.  (San- 

Marte).     Halle,  1854. 

H.  R.  B.     Translated  by  Sebastian  Evans.     1903. 

Vita  Merlini  (Geoffrey  of  Monmouth?).     Edd.  Wright,  T.  and  Michel,  F. 

London  and  Paris,  1837. 
Gildas.    De  Excidio  et  Conquestu  Britanniae.    Ed.  Mommsen.    Mon.  Germ. 

Hist.  XIII.      Berlin,  1S98. 
Ed.,    with  trans.,  by   Williams,   H.       Cymmrodorion   Record  Series. 

1901. 

Trans,  by  Giles,  J.  A.     Six  Old  English  Chronicles.     New  ed.      1901. 

Vita  Gildae  (Caradoc  of  Llancarvan?).     Ed.  Mommsen.      Berlin,  1898. 
Henry  of  Huntingdon.     Epistola  ad  Warinum  in  Vol.  iv  of  Chronicles  of 

Stephen,  etc.      Rolls  Series.      1884-9. 
Nennius.    Historia  Britonum.     Ed.  Mommsen.    Mon.  Germ.  Hist.  xiii.  Ber- 
lin, 1898. 
Trans,  by  Giles,  J.  A.     Six  Old  English  Chronicles.     New  ed.     1901. 

B.  Welsh 

The  Gododin  of  Aneurin  Gwawdrydd.     Trans.  Stephens,  T.     Ed.  Powel,  T. 

Cymmrodorion  Soc.      1888. 
The   Black   Book  of  Carmarthen.     Ed.   Evans,   J.   Gwenogvryn.     Oxford, 

1907. 
The  Heroic  Elegies  and  other  pieces  of  Llywarch  Hen.     Owen,  W.     1792- 
The  Mabinogion  and  the  Bruts  from  the  Red  Book  of  Hergest.     Edd.  Rhys, 

J.  and  Evans,  J.  Gwenogvryn.     2  vols.     Oxford,  1887-90. 
The  Mabinogion.     Trans,  by  Lady  Charlotte  Guest.     3  vols.     1838.     Ed. 

Nutt,  A.      1902. 
Les  Mabinogion,  traduits  pour  la  premiere  fois  en  Fran9ais,  par  J.  Loth. 

2  vols.     Paris,  1889 
The  Four  Ancient  Books  of  Wales.     Welsh  texts  and  translations.     Ed. 

Skene,  W.  F.     2  vols.     Edinburgh,  1868. 
Taliesin,  or  the  Bards  and  the  Druids  of  Britain.     Nash,  D.  W.     1858. 

C.  French 

Chretien  de  Troyes.  Cliges,  1901;  Le  Chevalier  de  la  Charrette,  1902;  Erec 
et  Enide,  1896;  Yvain,  le  chevalier  au  Lion,  1902;  all  ed.  W.  Forster, 
C.  V.  T.'s  Samm.  Werke,  Halle.  Le  Conte  del  Graal.  Ed.  Potvin. 
Mons,  1866-71.  [For  a  brief  summary  of  the  literary  quality  of  the 
work  of  C.  de  T.  see  Schofield,  W.  H.,  Eng.  Lit.  from  the  Norman  Con- 
quest to  Chaucer,  pp.  176  ff.  See  also  Paris,  G.,  J  ml.  des  Savants, 
1902.] 


5^4  Bibliography  to 

Marie  de  France.     Lais.     Ed.  Warnke,  K.  Halle,  1900. 

Wace.    Leroman  de  Brut.    Ed.  Le  Roux  de  Lincy.     2  vols.     Rouen,  1836-8. 

Queste  du  St.  Graal.     Ed.  Fumivall,  F.  J.     Roxburghe  Club.     1864. 

Le  roman  de  St.  Graal.     Poem  by  Borron,  R.  de,  printed  in  Furnivall's 

Seynt  Graal,  or  the  Sank  Ryal.     Roxburghe  Club.     1861-3.    Cf .  Heinzel^ 

R.,  tJber  die  franz.  Gralromane,  Vienna,  1892. 
Le  Saint-Graal  ou  le  Joseph  d'Arimathie  (containing  the  Grand  St.  Graal 

and  the  Didot  Perceval).     Ed.  Hucher.     3  vols.     Le  Mans,  1875-8. 
Lancelot.     [No  complete  ed.  of  this  romance  exists.      For  full  accounts  of  it 

see  Paulin  Paris,   Romans  de  la  Table  Ronde,   5  vols.,   1868-77,  and 

Weston,  J.  L.,  Legend  of  Lancelot,  1903.] 
Merlin.      The  Ordinary  or  Vulgate  prose   romance.       Ed.  Sommer,  H.  O. 

1894. 
Merlin,  Suite  de.     Edd.  Paris,  G.  and  Ulrich,  J.     2  vols.     Paris,  1890-1. 
Perceval  le  Gallois.     Ed.  Potvin.     6  vols.     Mons,  1865  ff. 
Le  Roman  de  Tristan  (by  Thomas).     Ed.   Bedier,  J.     Paris,   1902-5.      See 

also  his  Tristan  et  Iseut,  Paris,  1900,  and  Michel,  F.,  Recueil,  1835-9. 
Tristan  (by  Beroul).     Ed.  Muret,  E.     Paris,  1903. 
Le  Roman  en  Prose  de  Tristan,  summarised  and  analysed  by  Loseth,  E. 

Paris,  1892. 

D.     English  (original  texts  and  translations) 

Layamon.     Brut.     Ed.  Madden,  F.     3  vols.      1847. 

Marie  of  France.     Four  Lays,  trans.    Weston,   J.    L.,    1900;  Seven  Lays,, 
trans.     Rickert,  E.,  1901. 

Arthur  and  Gorlagon.     An  unpublished  text,  with  a  study  of  its  literary 

relations.     Kittredge,  G.  L.     Harvard  Studies  and  Notes,  viii. 
Arthour  and  Merlin  (metric5,l  romance).     Ed.  Turnbull.     Abbotsford  Club. 

1838.     Ed.    Kolbing.     Leipsic,    1890.     See   also   Percy  Folio  MS.,  ed. 

Furnivall  and  Hales. 
The  High  History  of  the  Holy  Grail.     Trans,  of  Perceval  le  Gallois  by  Evans,. 

S.     2  vols.     1898. 
Merlin,  (prose  romance,  c.  1440,  MS.  Camb.  Univ.  Lib.).    Ed.  Wheatley,  H.  B., 

and  others.     4  vols.     E.E.T.S.     1865-98. 
Syr  Gawayne.     Romance-poems.     Ed.  Madden,  F.  Bannatyne  Club.     1839. 
Syr  Gawayne  and  the  Grene  Knyght.     Edd.  Morris  and  Gollancz.     E.E.T.S. 

1864; 1897. 
Sir  Launfal.     Ritson,  J.     Old  English  Metrical  Romances.     3  vols.      1802. 
The  Parzival  of  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach.     Ed.  Martin,  E.     Halle,  1900-3. 

Trans,  into  English  verse  by  Weston,  J.  L.      2  vols.      1894. 
Syr  Percy velle  of  Galles.     Ed.  Halliwell,  J.  O.     The  Thornton  Romances. 

1844. 
Tristan  and  Iseult  by  Gottfried  von  Strassburg,  abridged  prose  trans,  by 

Weston,  J.  L.     2  vols.     1899.     See  also  Bossert,  A.,  L^gende  Chevaler- 

esque  de  T.  et  L,  Paris,  1902. 

II.     Critical  Studies  and  Essays. 

Arnold,  M.     On  the  Study  of  Celtic  Literature.     1867. 
Bardoux,  J.     De  Walterio  Mappio.     Paris,  1900. 
Birch-Hirschfeld,  A.     Die  Sage  vom  Gral.     Leipzig,  1877. 
Borderie,  A.  de  la.     L'Hist.  Brit,  attribuee  a  Nennius.     Paris,  1883. 


Chapter  XII  5i5 

Brie,  F.  W.  D.     Gesch.  u.  Quel,  der  mittelengl.     Prosachronik  The  Brute 

of  England.     Marburg,  1906. 
Brown,  A.  C.  L.     Iwain:  A  Study  in  the  History  of  Arthurian   Romance. 

Harvard  Studies  and  Notes,  viii. 

The  Round  Table  before  Wace.     Harvard  Studies  and  Notes,  vii. 

C16dat,  L.     L'Epopee  Courtoise.     Chap,  iv  in  vol.  i  of  Petit  de  Julleville's 

Histoire  de  la  Langue  et  de  la  Litterature  Franjaise.      1896. 
Dickinson,  W.  H.      King  Arthur  in  Cornwall.      1900. 
Fletcher,    R.    H.     The    Arthurian    Material    in    the    Chronicles.     Harvard 

Studies  and  Notes,  x.     1906. 
Golther,  W.     Die  Sage  von  Trist.  u.  Is.     Stud  iiber  ihre  Entstehung  u.  Ent- 

wickelung  im  Mittelalter.     Munich,  1887.     See  also  in  Z.  f.  Litgesch. 

(N.F.)  in,  in  Sitz.  der  K.  Bayer,  Akad.  Wiss.  1890,  on  the  Conte  del 

Graal. 
Harper,  G.  M.     Legend  of  the  Holy  Grail.     MLA.  viii. 
John,    Ivor    B.     The    Mabinogion.     Popular    Studies    in    Mythology,    etc. 

1901. 
Kempe,  D.     The  Legend  of  the  Holy  Grail.     E.E.T.S.  Extra  Series,  xcv. 
Ker,  W.  P.     Epic  and  Romance.      1897. 
Kolbing,   E.     Die  nordische  und  die  englische  Version   der  Tristan-Sage. 

Heilbronn.     2  vols.      1878-83. 
Lot.F.     Etudes  sur  la  provenance  du  cycle  Arthurien.     Romania,  xxiv,  xxv, 

xx^iii,  XXX.     See  also  Annales  de  Bret.,  1900. 
Loth,  J.     L'Emigration  bretonne  en  Armorique.      1883. 
Les  nouvelles  theories  sur  I'origine  des  romans  Arthuriens.     Revue 

Celtique,  xiii. 
MacCallum,  M.  W.     Tennyson's  Idylls  and  Arthurian  Story.     Glasgow,  1894. 
Meyer,  P.     De  quelques  chroniques  anglo-normandes  qui  ont  port6  e  nom 

de  Brut.     S.A.T.F.     Paris,  1878. 
Newell,  W.W.     King  Arthur  and  the  Table  Round.     Boston,  1897. 
Nutt,  A.     Celtic  and  Medieval  Romance.     Popular  Studies.      1904. 

Legends  of  the  Holy  Grail.     Popular  Studies  in  Mythology,  etc.     1902. 

Les  derniers  travaux  allemands  sur  la  legende  du  Saint  Graal.     Paris, 

1891.     (From  Revue  Celtique,  xii.) 
— —  Notes  to  edition  of  Lady  C.  Guest's  Mabinogion.      1902. 

Studies  in  the  Legend  of  the  Holy  Grail.      1888. 

Paris,  G.     Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France.     Vol.  xxx,  pp.  1-270.     Paris, 

1888. 

Tristan  et  Iseult.     Revue  de  Paris.     1894. 

La    Litterature    franjaise    au    moyen-age.     Paris,    1888.     Trans,    in 

Temple  Classics. 
Paton,    L.    A.     Studies   in   the   Fairy   Mythology  of  Arthurian    Romance. 

Radcliffe  College  Monographs. 
Renan,  E.     The  Poetry  of  the  Celtic  Races.     1858.     Trans,  by  Hutchinson. 

1896. 
Rhys,  J.     Celtic  Folklore.     2  vols.     Oxford,  1901. 

Preface  to  Dent's  ed.  of  Malory's  Morte  d' Arthur.      1893. 

Studies  in  the  Arthurian  Legend.     Oxford,  1891. 

Saintsbury,   G.     The  Flourishing  of  Romance  and  the   Rise  of  Allegory. 

Edinburgh,  1897. 
Schofield,  W.  H.    English  Literature  from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  Chaucer. 
1906. 

VOL.  I. — 33 


5^6  Bibliographies  to 

Sommer,  H.  O.  Vol.  in  of  his  edition  of  Sir  Thomas  Malory's  Morte  d'Ar- 
thur.     1889-91. 

Stephens,  T.     The  Literature  of  the  Kymry.     2nd  ed.     1872. 

Ward,  H.  D.  L.  Catalogue  of  Romances  in  British  Museum.  Vol.  i.  [Arti- 
cles on  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  and  Walter  Map.] 

Warton,  T.  History  of  British  Poetry.  Vol.  i,  note  by  Price,  R.,  on  Sir 
Tristrem. 

Wechssler,  E.     Die  Sage  vom  heiligen  Gral.     Halle,  1898. 

Uber  die  verschiedenen  Redaktionen .  .  .  Boron  zugeschriebenen  Graal- 

Lancelot  Cyklus.      Halle,  1895. 

Weston,  J.  L.  King  Arthur  and  His  Knights.  Popular  Studies  in  Mythol- 
ogy, etc.      1899. 

The  Legend  of  Sir  Gawain,  1897.     The  Legend  of  Sir  Lancelot  du  Lac, 

1 90 1.  The  Legend  of  Sir  Perceval,  1906.  The  Three  Days'  Tourna- 
ment, 1903.     All  in  the  Grimm  Library. 

Wulker,  R.     Die  Arthursage  in  der  engl.  Lit.     Leipzig,  1895. 

Zimmer,  H.  Bretonische  Elemente  in  der  Arthursage  des  Gottfried  von 
Monmouth,  etc.     Zeitschrift  fiir   franzosische    Sprache  und  Litteratur, 

vol.   XIII. 

Nennius  Vindicatus.     Berlin,  1893. 

Gottingische  gelehtre  Anzeigen.     1890.     No.    12.     Review  of  Nutt's 

Grail  Studies. 

Ibid.     1890.     No.   20.     [Review  of  G.   Paris's  contribution  to   Hist. 

Litt.  de  la  France.] 

[A  brief  list  of  the  chief  materials  for  a  study  of  the  old  Cymric  and  Gaelic 
language  and  literature  will  be  found  in  Morley's  English  Writers,  vol.  i, 
pp.  200  and  237,  1887. 

Arthurian  Ballads  (e.g.  The  Boy  and  the  Mantle,  the  latter  a  garment 
which  cannot  be  worn  by  any  erring  lady)  will  be  found  in  the  Percy  Folio 
MS.,  Child  and  other  collections.  For  the  male  pendant  to  the  Boy  and  the 
Mantle,  e.g.  La  Lai  du  Corn,  see  Bodl.  MS.,  Digby  86,  and  the  note  on 
British  Lais  in  Warton,  vol.  11  (1840).  A  handsome  boy  rides  "  a  la  court  del 
bon  rei  Artus,"  with  a  horn  from  which  only  faithful  knights  can  drink 
without  spilling.  See  ed.  Wulff,  F.,  Lund,  1888,  and  cf.  The  Cokwold's 
Daunce.] 

CHAPTERS  XIII  AND  XIV 

METRICAL  ROMANCES  I  AND  II 

(See  also  bibliography  to  the  Arthurian  chapter.) 

General  Collections  and  Authorities 

See  Korting's  Grundriss;  Schofield's  English  Literature  from  the  Norman 
Conquest  to  Chaucer,  which  devotes  more  attention  to  lais  and  romances 
than  any  preceding  work  in  English  and  has  a  very  useful  bibliography;  and 
also  A  Summary  of  the  Literatures  of  Modern  Europe  (England,  France, 
Germany,  Italy,  Spain)  from  the  Origins  to  1400,  by  Marian  Edwardes,  one 
of  the  most  useful  books  of  its  kind  in  English,  1907. 

Auchinleck  MS.,  The.  A  famous  MS.  (14th  cent.),  given  to  the  Advocates' 
Library,  Edinburgh,  by  Alexander  Boswell  of  Auchinleck,  the  father  of 
Johnson's  Boswell.  See  Morley's  English  Writers,  iii,  281;  Kolbing,  E., 
Engl.  Stud.  VII,  and  Schofield,  W.  H.,  Eng.  Lit.,  p.  15.    It  contains  several 


Chapters  XIII  and  XIV  517 

Middle  English  poems  and  romances,  Owayne  Miles,  the  Harrowing  of 
Hell  and  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins,  the  Wench  that  Loved  a  King,  tales  like 
A  Penniworth  of  Witte,  the  Lai  le  Freine,  Thrush  and  Nightingale, 
Body  and  Soul  debates,  political  satires,  etc.,  etc.  See  below  under 
separate  romances. 

Benfey,  T.     (ed.).     Orient  u.  Occident.     3  vols.     G5ttingen,  1862  ff. 

Billings,  Anna  H.  Guide  to  the  Middle  English  Metrical  Romances.  Yale 
Studies  in  English.     New  York,  1901.     [A  very  useful  work.] 

Brandl,  A.  Mittelenglische  Litteratur  in  Paul's  Grundriss.  Strassburg. 
1893. 

Campbell.     Popular  Tales  of  the  West  Highlands.     4  vols.     Edinburgh. 

Child,  F.  J.    English  and  Scottish  Popular  Ballads.    5  vols.    Boston,  1882  ff. 

Deutschbein,  M.  Studien  zur  Sagengeschichte  Englands  (Horn,  Havelok, 
Tristan,  Beves,  Guy).     Cothen,  1906. 

Ellis,  G.  Specimens  of  Early  English  Metrical  Romances,  to  which  is 
prefixed  an  historical  introduction  on  the  rise  and  progress  of  romantic 
composition  in  France  and  England.  Revised  by  Halliwell,  J.  O. 
1848.  Contains  analyses  of  the  following:  Peter  Alphonsus,  Marie's 
Lays,  Merlin,  Morte  Arthur,  Guy  of  W.,  Sir  Bevis,  Richard  C.  de  L., 
Roland  and  Ferragus,  Sir  Otuel,  Sir  Ferumbras,  the  Seven  Wise  Masters, 
Florice  and  Blaunchefiour,  Robert  of  Cysille,  Sir  Isumbras,  Sir  Tria- 
mour,  Ipomydon,  Sir  Eglamour,  Lay  le  Fraine,  Sir  Eger,  Sir  Grahame 
and  Sir  Graysteel,  Sir  Degore,  Roswal  and  Lillian,  and  Amys  and 
Amylion. 

Gautier,  L.     Les  Epopees  franyaises.     Paris,  1878-82. 

Bibl.  des  Chansons  de  Geste.     Paris,  1897. 

Hales,  J.  W.  Folia  Litteraria  (contains  papers,  inter  alia,  on  Old  English 
Metrical  Romances,  Havelok,  Eger  and  Grime.). 

Halliwell,  J.  O.  Thornton  Romances:  Percival,  Isumbras,  Eglamour,  De- 
gravant.     Camden  Soc.      1844. 

Hartshorne,  C.  H.  Ancient  Metrical  Tales.  1829.  Athelston,  King  Ed- 
ward and  the  Shepherd,  Floris,  William  the  Werwolf,  etc. 

Ker,  W.  P.     Epic  and  Romance.     1897. 

Laing,  D.  Select  Remains  of  the  Ancient  Popular  Poetry  of  Scotland,  1822, 
re-edited  with  additions  by  Small,  1885. 

Early  Scottish  Metrical  Tales,  1826,  1889. 

Madden,  F.     Sir  Gawayne,  etc.     Bannatyne  Club,  1839. 

Paris,  G.     Histoire  poetique  de  Charlemagne.      1865,  ed.  Meyer  1905. 

La  Litt.  fr.  au  moyen  age.     Paris,  1905. 

Poemes  et  Legendes  du  moyen  age.     Paris,  1900. 

La  Poesie  du  moyen  age.      2  vols.     Paris,  1885-95. 

Percy  Folio  Manuscript.  Ed.  Hales,  J.  W.,  and  Furnivall,  F.  J.  3  vols. 
1867  ff. 

Potter,  M.  A.  Sohrab  and  Rustem.  The  Epic  theme  of  a  Combat  between 
Father  and  Son.      1902. 

Ritson,  J.  Ancient  English  Metrical  Romancees.  3  vols.  1802.  The 
Wedding  of  Sir  Gawain :  Ywaine  and  Gawin :  Launfal :  Lybeaus  Disconus : 
The  Geste  of  King  Horn:  The  Kyng  of  Tars,  and  the  Soudan  of  Damas: 
Emare:  Sir  Orpheo:  Chronicle  of  Engleland:  Le  bone  Florence  of  Rome: 
The  Erie  of  Tolous :  The  Squyer  of  Lowe  Degre :  The  Knight  of  Curtesy, 
and  the  Fair  Lady  of  Faguell:  (Appendix)  Horn  Childe  and  Maiden 
Rimnild. 


5i8  Bibliographies  to 

Robson,  J.     Three  Early  English  Metrical  Romances.     Camden  Society,  No. 

XVIII.      1842.     From  the  Ireland  MS.,  Anturs  of  Arther,  Sir  Amadace, 

The  Avowynge  of  King  Arther,  Sir  Gawan,  Sir  Kaye  and  Sir  Bawdewyn 

of  Bretan. 
Saintsbury,   G.     The   Flourishing  of   Romance  and  the    Rise  of  Allegory. 

Edinburgh,  1897. 
Schofield,  W.  H.     English  Literature  from  the  Norman  Conquest  to  Chaucer. 

1906. 
Snell,  F.  J.    The  Fourteenth  Century.    Periods  of  European  Lit.    Edinburgh, 

1899. 
Suchier,    H.    and   Birch-Hirschfeld,    A.     Gesch.    der   franz.    Litt.     Leipzig, 

1900. 
Stengel,  E.     Die  altfranz.  Rolandslied.      Leipzig,  1900. 
Thorns,  W.  J.     A  Collection  of  Early  Prose  Romances.     1828.     Ed.  Morley, 

H.     Last  reprint  1907.     Contains  .  inter  alia,  the  stories  of  Robert  the 

Devil,  Guy  of  Warwick  and  the  Knight  of  the  Swan. 
Utterson,   R.     Select  Pieces  of  Early  Popular  Poetry,  from  copies  in  the 

Black    Letter.     2    vols.      18 17.     Syr    Tryamoure,    Syr    Isenbras,    Syr 

Degore,  Syr  Gowghter. 
Ward,  H.  L.  D.      Catalogue  of  Romances,  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum. 

2  vols.     1883,  1893. 
Warton,  T.     History  of  British  Poetry.     Vol.  i.  Diss.  i.     On  the  Origin  of 

Romantic  Fiction  in  Europe. 
Weber,   H.     Metrical    Romances.     3   vols.     Edinburgh,    18 10.     Kyng  Ali- 

saunder,  Sir  Cleges,  Lay  le  Freine,  Richard  Coer  de  Lion,  Ipomydon, 

Amis  and  Amiloun,  The  Sevyn  Sages,  Octovian  Imperator,  Sir  Amadas, 

The  Hunting  of  the  Hare. 
Weston,  J.  L.     The  Romance  Cycle  of  Charlemagne.     1901.     [The  other 

numbers  of  Nutt's  series,  Popular  Studies  in  Mythology,  Romance  and 

Folk-Lore,  may  also  be  consulted  with  much  advantage.] 

Romances 

Alexander.  For  a  summary  of  the  growth  of  the  saga  of  Alexander,  and 
especially  of  the  work  of  Lambert  li  Tort  (the  Crooked)  of  Chateaudun, 
and  Alexandre  de  Bernay  or  de  Paris,  see  Ten  Brink,  Hist,  of  Eng.  Lit., 
Eng.  trans,  i.  The  first  form  of  the  Alexander  legend  is  found  in  the 
Greek  Pseudo-Kallisthenes,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made 
(see  p.  149).  Its  Latin  forms,  by  means  of  Julius  Valerius  and  the 
archpriest  Leo,  found  their  way  to  the  west,  and  Lambert's  and  Alexandre 
de  Bernay's  work  constitute  the  great  redaction  of  the  story  for  western 
readers  and  imitators.  See  Li  romans  d'Alixandre,  par  Lambert  li 
Tors  et  Alexandre  de  Bernay,  ed.  Michelant,  H.,  Stuttgart,  1846.  In 
England,  the  adaptation  by  Thomas  or  Eustace  of  Kent  (Roman  de 
toute  chevalerie)  lead  the  way  to  the  alliterative  romance  of  King 
Alisaunder.  For  this  last,  our  immediate  concern,  see  MSS  Laud,  Lin- 
coln's Inn  and  Auch.  frag,  and  Weber's  collection.  See  also  the  allitera- 
tive romance  of  Alexander  and  Dindimus,  E.E.T.S.  Extra  Series 
XXXI,  ed.  Skeat,  W.  W.;  Wars  of  Alexander,  Roxburghe  Club,  1849, 
ed.  Stevenson;  E.E.T.S.  Extra  Series,  XLVii,  ed.  Skeat;  The 
Buik  of  the  most  noble  and  vailjeand  Conquerour,  Alexander  the  Great, 
Bannatyne  Club,  1834.  Cf.  Weber  i,  pp.  lxxiii,  lxxxvii,  Ward, 
Catalogue  of  Romances,  i,  p.  149,  and  the  Scots  Buik  of  King  Alexander 


Chapters  XIII  and  XIV  5^9 

by  Sir  Gilbert  Hay  in  the  Taymouth  MS.  See  also,  on  the  cycle  as  a 
whole,  Budge,  E.  A.  Wallis,  History  of  Alexander  the  Great,  Cambridge, 
1889,  and  Life  and  Exploits  of  Alexander  the  Great,  1896;  Meyer,  P., 
Alexandre  le  Grand  dans  la  litt.  fr.  du  moyen  age,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1886; 
Herrmann,  A.,  on  Sir  Gilbert  Hay's  MS.,  Berlin,  1898;  Trautmann, 
tJber  Verfasser  und  Entstehungszeit  einiger  allit.  Gedichte,  Halle, 
1876. 

Amis  and  Amiloun.  MS.,  Auch.,  etc.  Ed.  Weber.  Kolbing,  Heilbronn, 
1884. 

Arthur,     c.  1440.     Ed.  Furnivall,  F.  J.     E.E.T.S.  11. 

Arthour  and  Merlin.  (Auch.  MS.)  Ed.  Turnbull.  Abbotsford  Club,  1838, 
and  Kolbing,  1890.  See  also  Percy  folio  MS;  Biilbring,  K.  D.,  in  Engl. 
Stud.  XVI ;  Robert  de  Boron's  Merlin,  ed.  Paris,  G.  and  Ulrich,  J.,  1886, 
Soc.  Anc.  Tex.  Fr.  [Kolbing's  edition  should  be  consulted  for  a  dis- 
cussion as  to  sources  and  authorship.  He  is  inclined  to  the  view  of  a 
single  author  for  this  romance  and  the  romances  of  King  Alisaunder 
and  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion.  See  also  below  under  Lovelich,  and  also 
the  bibliography  to  the  chapter  on  the  Arthurian  Legend,  for  ^Merlin.] 

Arthure  at  the  Terne  Wathelyne,  Awntyrs  of.  Robson,  see  above;  Laing. 
1822,  Amours,  Scot.  Text  Soc,  1892;  Pinkerton,  1792;  Madden,  1839. 
See,  on  the  metre,  Luick,  K.,  in  Anglia,  xii. 

Arthur,  Avowing  of  King.     Madden  (Sir  Gawayne),  1839.      Robson. 

Athelston.  A  story  of  ordeal  by  fire.  MS.,  Caius,  Cambridge.  Hartshorne. 
Wright  and  Halliwell's  Reliquiae  Antiquae.  1845.  Zupitza,  in  Eng. 
Stud.  XIII,  XIV. 

Barlaam  and  Josaphat.  See  Jacobs,  J.,  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  English 
Lives  of  Buddha,  1896;  the  Anglo-Norman  version  of  Chardri,  ed. 
Koch,  J.,  Heilbronn,  1879;  Paris,  Gaston,  Poemes  et  L^gendes  du  moyen 
age,  Paris,  1900;  Kuhn,  E.  W.  A.,  B.  u.  J.  bibl.  litgesch.  Stud.,  Munich, 
1894;  Horstmann,  C,  Altengl.  Legenden,  1875  ff.;  Gui  de  Cambrai's 
B.  und  J.,  edd.  Meyer,  P.  and  Zotenburg,  H.,  Stuttgart,  1864. 

Benoit  de  Sainte  More.  For  the  Roman  de  Troie,  which  has  its  value  not 
only  in  its  telling  of  the  legend,  and  in  its  poetry  as  poetry,  but  also  as 
a  record  of  contemporary  French  life,  see  Joly,  A.,  B.  de  S.  M.  et  le 
Roman  de  Troie,  ou  les  Metamorphoses  d'Homere  et  de  I'epopee  greco- 
latine  au  moyen  age,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1870-1;  new  edition  in  preparation, 
Soc.  des  anciens  textes  franyais. 

Beryn,  Tale  of.  See  Chalmers,  Eng.  Poets,  i;  Chaucer  Soc.  ed.  Furnivall 
and  Stone,  1884. 

Charlemagne  Romances.  In  addition  to  those  mentioned  under  separate 
headings,  see  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xxxvi,  7,  Lyf  of  Charles  the  Grete,  ed. 
Herrtage,  S.  J.;  xl,  xli,  xliii  and  l,  Huon  of  Burdeux,  ed.  Lee,  S.  L.; 
XLiv,  XLV,  The  Four  Sons  of  Aymon,  ed.  Richardson,  O. 

Chevelere  Assigne.  Ed.  Utterson,  Roxburghe  Club,  1820,  and  Lord  Alden- 
ham.  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  VI.  A  prose  analysis  of  the  tale  of  the  Knight 
of  the  Swan  will  be  found  in  Thoms. 

Clariodus.     Maitland  Club.      1830. 

Dares  Phrygius.     See  under  Joseph  of  Exeter. 

Dictys  Cretensis.     See  under  Joseph  of  Exeter. 

Eger  and  Grine.  Percy  Folio  MS.  (See  Hales,  J.  W.,  Folia  Literaria,  1893.) 
The  History  of  Sir  Eger,  Sir  Graham,  and  Sir  Gray-steel.  Printed  1687. 
Aberdeen,  17 11.     Laing,  1826. 


520  Bibliographies  to 

Emare.  MS.  Brit.  Mus.  Ed.  Ritson,  and  Gough,  A.  B.  Old  and  Middle 
English  Texts.  1901.  Cf.  Trivet's  chronicle;  Gough,  A.  B.,  The 
Constance  Saga,  Berlin,  1902;  Cox,  M.  R.,  On  Cinderella,  1893;  and  H. 
Suchier's  edition  (1884)  of  P.  de  Beaumanoir's  Manekine.  An  edition 
in  the  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.,  ed.  Miss  E.  Rickert,  is  "at  press." 

Florence  of  Rome,  Le  Bone.     Ritson.     Victor,  1893,  1899. 

Florice  and  Blauncheflour.  MS,  Auch.,  etc,  Ed.  Hartshorne.  Laing, 
Abbotsford  Club,  1857;  Lumby,  J.  R.  and  McKnight,  G.  H.,  E.E.T.S. 
XIV ;  Hausknecht,  E.,  Berlin,  1885,  in  Samml.  Engl.  Denkmaler,  v.  [Con- 
tains a  valuable  introduction.]  For  the  cognate  French  tale,  Berthe  aux 
grands  pieds,  see  ed.  Scheler,  A.,  1874. 

Gamelyn,  Tale  of.  Ed.  Skeat,  W.  W.  2nded.,  1893.  See  also  Lindner,  F., 
Eng.  Stud.  II. 

Generides.  Furnivall,  F.  J.  Roxburghe  Club,  1865.  See  also  Generydes, 
c.  1440.     Ed.  Aldis  Wright.     E.E.T.S.  lv,  lxx,  and  Zupitza  in  Anglia,  i. 

Gologrus  and  Gawayne.  Chepman  and  Myllar,  1508,  reprinted  by  Laing,  D. 
1827;  Madden,  Bannatyne  Club,  1839;  Trautmann  in  Anglia,  11:  Amours, 
Scot.  Text  Soc.  1892;  Pinkerton,  1792. 

Guy  of  Warwick  (MSS  Auch.  and  Caius,  etc.).  Ed.  Turnbull,  Abbotsford 
Club,  1840,  and  Zupitza,  J.,  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xlii,  xlix,  lix.  For  the 
Anglo-Norman  version  see  ed.  Schonemann,  C.  P.  C,  Leipzig,  1842. 
See  also  Percy  Folio  MS.,  ed.  Furnivall  and  Hales,  for  Guye  and  Amarant, 
etc.;  Thoms,  W.  J.  Early  English  Prose  Romances  (for  prose  analysis); 
and  Puttenham's  Arte  of  Poesie.  See  Korting,  p.  in,  for  further  details 
of  MSS.,  and  Zupitza's  edition  of  the  second  or  fifteenth  century  version 
in  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xxv,  xxvi,  for  a  discussion  of  the  versions. 

Havelok  the  Dane  (Laud  MS.,  108).  Ed.  Madden  (English  and  French), 
Roxburghe  Club,  1828;  Skeat,  W.  W.  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  iv:  Holthausen, 
Heidelburg,  1901;  Skeat,  W.  W.  Oxford,  1902.  For  the  French  Le  lai 
d'Aveloc,  and  for  discussions  as  to  the  relative  ages  of  the  versions,  see 
Kupferschmidt,  M.  Die  Haveloksage  bei  Gaimar.  Rom.  Stud,  iv; 
Skeat's  edition;  Hupe,  H.,  in  Anglia,  xiii.  See  also  Gollancz's  Hamlet  in 
Iceland,  1898,  and,  for  metre,  Saintsbury,  G.,  History  of  English  Prosody, 
I,  1906;  Hales,  J.  W.,  Folia  Literaria;  Zupitza,  in  Anglia,  vii,  and  in 
ZDA.  XIX,  may  also  be  mentioned. 

Horn,  King.  MSS,  Cambridge  Gg.  4.27.2,  Harl.  2253,  Laud  108.  Ed. 
Ritson;  Michel,  Paris,  1845;  Bannatyne  Club,  1845;  Lumby,  J.  R.  and 
McKnight,  G.  H.,  E.E.T.S.  xiv;  Matzner,  1867:  Morris  and  Skeat, 
Specimens,  i;  Horstmann,  in  Herrig's  Archiv.  50;  Hall,  J.,  1901 ;  and  the 
Ballads  in  Child's  edition  (Hind  Horn,  etc.).  See  Luick,  K..  in  Paul's 
Grundriss,  on  metre.  For  various  theories  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
different  versions  see  Hartenstein,  O.,  Studien  zur  Hornsage,  Heidelberg, 
1902,  a  useful  work;  Schofield,  MLA.  xviii;  Hall's  edition  mentioned 
above;  Wissmann,  Th.,  in  Quel.  u.  Forsch.  xvi;  and  in  Anglia,  iv.  See 
also  under  Horn  Child  below. 

Horn  Child  and  Maiden  Rimnild.  MS.,  Auch.  Ed.  Ritson.  Michel,  Banna- 
tyne Club,  1845;  Hall,  1901;  Caro  in  Eng.  Stud,  xii;  cf.  the  Anglo- 
Norman  Horn  et  Rimenhild,  ed.  Brede,  E.  and  Stengel,  E.,  Aus.  u.  Abh. 
Rom.  Phil,  viii,  Marburg,  1883. 

Ipomedon.     See  under  Rotelande. 

Iwain  and  Gawain.  MS.,  Brit.  Mus.  Ritson;  ed.  Schleich,  G.,  1887,  Oppeln 
and  Leipzig,  1887.     See  Brown,  A.  C.  L.,  in  Harvard  Studies  and  Notes, 


Chapters  XIII  and  XIV  521 

viii;  Schofield,  W.  H.,  English  Literature  from  the  Norman  Conquest 
to  Chaucer,  pp.  230  ff. 

John  the  Reeve.  Percy  Folio  MS.  Small,  in  Laing's  Select  Remains,  new 
edition.      1885. 

Joseph  of  Arimathie.  MS.,  Oxford,  Vernon.  Skeat.  E.E.T.S.  44,  together 
with  Wynkyn  de  Worde's  and  Pynson's  Lives  of  Joseph.  [One  of  the 
romances  of  the  alliterative  revival.] 

Joseph  of  Exeter  (Josephus  Iscanus)  (fi.  1190),  one  of  the  ablest  of  medieval 
Latin  poets,  who  accompanied  archbishop  Baldwin  to  the  Holy  Land. 
Joseph's  De  Bello  Trojana  would  appear  to  have  been  based  on  Latin 
versions  of  Greek  words  by  writers  known  by  the  names  of  Dares 
Phrygius  and  Dictys  Cretensis.  His  poem  is  in  six  books  and  exists  in 
several  MSS.  It  was  printed  at  Basel,  1558,  and  the  first  book  has  been 
edited  by  Jusserand,  J.  J.  Paris,  1877.  For  Dictys  and  Dares,  see 
eds.  by  Meister,  F.,  in  Teubner  library,  Liepzig,  1872-3  ;  and  KQrting,  G., 
Dictys  u.  Dares.  Ein  Beitrag  z.  Gesch.  der  Troja-sage  in  ihrem  Uber- 
gange  aus  der  antiken  in  die  romantische  Form.  Halle,  1874.  See  also 
below  under  Troy.  Joseph  of  Exeter  was  also  the  author  of  a  poem  on 
the  third  Crusade,  Antiocheis,  the  greater  portion  of  which  is  lost  (see 
Warton,  Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  i),  and  ante,  Chap.  x. 

Knight  of  Curtesy  and  the  Fair  Lady  of  Faguell.  Copland.  Ritson.  Hazlitt, 
W.  C.     1866. 

Lai  le  Freine.     See  under  Marie  de  France. 

Lancelot  of  the  Laik.  c.  1500.  MS.,  Camb.  Univ.  Lib.  Ed.  Stevenson, 
Maitland  Club,  1839;  Skeat,  W.  W.  E.E.T.S.  6.  See  Weston,  J.  L. 
Legend  of  Sir  Lancelot  du  Lac.  Studies  upon  its  origin,  development, 
and  position  in  the  Arthurian  Cycle,  1901. 

Libeaus  Desconus,  the  Fair  Unknown.  See  Ritson;  Kolbing  in  Engl.  Stud,  i ; 
Kaluza  in  Kolbing's  Altenglische  Bibliothek,  Leipzig,  1890;  Percy  Fol. 
MS.;  Schofield,  Harvard  Studies  and  Notes,  iv;  Paris,  G.,  in  Romania, 
xv;  Weston,  J.  L.,  Arthurian  Romances,  v;  Horstmann,  C,  Altenglische 
Legenden,  1875.  [There  is  a  fine  French  version  by  Renaud  de  Beaujeu, 
and  the  authorities  quoted  above  should  be  referred  to  for  the  relation 
between  French  and  English  version. 

Lovelich,  Henry.  Holy  Grail,  History  of.  c.  1450.  Ed.  Furnivall,  F.  J. 
Roxburghe  Club,  1861-3.  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xx,  xxiv.  xxviii,  xxx,  xcv 
(The  Legend  of  the  Holy  Grail,  ed.  Kempe,  Dorothy). 

Merlin.     Ed.  Kock,  E.  A.,  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xciii,  xciv. 

Marie  de  France.  The  narrative  lais  of  Marie  de  France  were,  apparently, 
produced  in  England  in  the  twelfth  century,  in  the  days  of  Henry  H,  to 
whom  they  are  dedicated.  They  are  contained  chiefly  in  Harl.  MS.,  978, 
and  consist  of  short  verse  tales,  taken  from  Celtic  tradition.  She  used 
the  legends  of  the  Purgatory  of  St.  Patrick;  Lanval  (cf.  the  English 
Sir  Launfal  of  T.  Chestre);  Guingamor  (cf.  Bran);  Laustic;  Chevrefeuille 
(cf.  Tristram  and  Iseult),  etc.  See  Petit  de  Julleville's  Hist,  de  la 
Langue  et  de  la  Litt.  fr.,  vols.  i.  11;  Wamcke,  K.,  in  Suchier's  Biblio- 
theca  Normannica,  vol.  iii;  Hervieux,  Fabulistes  Latins,  1883,  18S4; 
Bedier,  J.,  in  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  Oct.  1891;  Warton,  Hist.  Eng. 
Poetry,  Price's  Note  on  Dissert,  i;  Ten  Brink,  Eng.  Lit.,  vol.  i;  Schofield, 
Harvard  Studies,  v;  Weston,  J.  L.  (trans.),  Arthurian  Romances  un- 
represented in  Malory  (Guingamor,  Lanval,  Tyolet,  Le  Bisclaveret), 
1900;  Rickert,  E.  (trans.),  1901 ;  and  the  adaptations  of  Arthur  O'Shaugh- 


522  Bibliographies  to 

nessy,  1872.  For  the  English  forms  of  Breton  lais,  see  especially  the 
very  beautiful  Lai  le  Freine  in  the  Auchinleck  MS.,  and  also  the  tale  of  Sir 
Degarre.  The  Lai  le  Freine,  the  story  of  the  girl  exposed  in  the  ash 
tree,  will  be  found  in  the  collections  of  Ellis  and  Weber  mentioned  above. 
See  also  Varnhagen,  H.,  in  Anglia,  iii,  and  of.  the  tale  of  patient  Griselda, 
in  its  many  forms.  Marie  de  France  should  also  be  remembered  for  her 
Ysopet,  or  book  of  fables,  based  on  earlier  English  (the  so-called  Alfred's 
Aesop)  and  Latin  collections.  See  Warncke,  K.,  as  above,  vol.  vi, 
and  Jacobs,  J.,  Fables  of  Aesop,  1889. 
Melayne,  Sege  of.     MS.,  Brit.  Mus.     Ed.  Herrtage,  S.  J.,  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser. 

XXXV.     See  Biilbring,  K.  D.,  Engl.  Stud.  xiii. 
Melusine   (Jean  d' Arras).     Unique  MS.,  Brit.  Mus.     Prose  romance.     Ed. 

Donald,  A.  K.,  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  lxviii. 
Mort  Arthur  (stanza  form).     MS.,  Harl.  2252.     Ed.  Roxburghe  Club,  1819; 

Furnivall,  F.  J.  1864;  Bruce,  J.  D.,  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  lxxxviii. 
Morte  Arthure  (alliterative),  c.  1440.  MS.,  Thornton  in  Lincoln  Cathedral. 
Ed.  Halliwell,  1847;  Perry  and  Brock,  E.,  E.E.T.S.  viii;  Banks,  M.  M., 
1900.  See  also  Branscheid,  P.,  Die  Quellen  des  Morte  Arthure,  Anglia, 
VIII,  Anz.;  Luick,  K.,  in  Anglia,  xi,  and  the  bibliography  to  Huchoun, 
vol.  II  of  present  work. 
•Octavian   (two  versions).      Weber.   Sarrazin,   in  Altengl.   Bibl.     Heilbronn, 

1885,  pp.  1-63,  64-167.     Ed.  Halliwell.     Percy  Soc.      1844. 
Otuel.      Rowland  and  Vernagu.     MS.,  Auch.     Ed.  Maidment,  J.,  Abbotsford 

Club,  1836,  and  Herrtage.     E.E.T.S.  xxxix,  Ex.  Ser. 
Partenay,  Romans  of.    Ed.  Skeat,  W.  W.    E.E.T.S.  xxii.    See  also  Melusine. 
Partonope  of  Blois  (two  versions).     Ed.  Buckley,  Roxburghe  Club,  1862; 
Nichols,  1873.     Anglia,  xii.     Cf.  Kolbing,  E.     Beit,  zur  vergl.  Gesch. 
der  Romant.  Poesie  u.  Prosa  des  Mittelalters.     Breslau,  1876. 
Protesilaus.     See  under  Rotelande. 

Rauf  Coilyear,  The  Taill  of.  Lekprevik,  R.,  St.  Andrews,  1572 ;  Laing,  1822 ; 
Herrtage,  S.  J.,  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xxxix;  Amours,  M.,  Scot.  Text  Soc. 
1892.  See  the  chapter  on  Early  Scots  Lit.,  vol.  11  of  present  work. 
Richard  Coeur  de  Lion.  MSS.,  Caius,  Auch.  frag.,  etc.  Printed  by  Wynkyn 
de  Worde,  1509-28.  See  Weber.  Engl.  Stud,  viii,  xv,  xvi;  Needier, 
G.  H.,  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  in  Literature.  Leipzig,  1890;  and  Archer, 
T.  A.,  Crusade  of  Richard  I.,  Eng.  Hist.  fr.  Contemp.  Writers,  1889. 
[The  character  of  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  as  portrayed  in  the  romance, 
is  happily  compared  by  Ten  Brink  to  John  Bull.] 
Roberd  of  Cisyle.     Ed.  Horstmann,  1878;  Halliwell,  Nugae  Poeticae,  1844; 

Hazlitt,  W.  C,  Early  Pop.  Poetry  of  Engl.,  4  vols.,  1864. 
Roland.     Lansdowne  MS.     Ed.  Herrtage.     E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xxxv. 
Roswall  and  Lillian.     Edinburgh,  1663;  Newcastle,  1775;  Laing,  1822-6.   See 

Lengert,  O.,  in  Eng.  Stud,  xvi,  xvii. 
Rotelande,  Hue  de  (fi.  1185),  Anglo-Norman,  of  Credenhill,  near  Hereford. 
Author  of  Hippomedon  (MS.,  Brit.  Mus.  and  Bodl.),  and  Protesilaus 
(MS.,  Bibl.  Nat.  Paris).  See  edd.  Kolbing,  E.,  Breslau,  1889;  Weber; 
Mussafia,  A.,  Sitzungsb.  Kaisr.  Acad.  Wiss.,  Vienna,  1890.  Three  Eng- 
lish versions  are  extant  in  MS.  See  Korting,  p.  122. 
Rowland,  Duke,  and  Sir  Otuel  of  Spayne.     MS.,  Brit.  Mus.     Ed.  Herrtage. 

E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xxxv. 
Seven  Sages  of  Rome.     MSS.,  Auch.  and  Camb.  Dd.  i.  17,  etc.     Ed.  Weber; 


Chapters  XIII  and  XIV  523 

Wright,  T.,  Percy  Soc,  1845.     See  also  The  Seven  Sages  in  Scottish 

Metre,  by  John  Rolland,  Bannatyne  Club,  Edinburgh,   1837;  Paris,  G. 

Deux  redactions  du   Roman   des   Sept   Sages  de    Rome,   Paris,    1876; 

Campbell,    K.,    Albion    Series,    Boston,    1907;    Domenico    Comparetti. 

Researches  respecting  the  Book  of  Sindibad,  Folklore  Soc,  1882;  and 

W.  A.  Clouston's  B.  of  S.,  Glascow,  1884. 
Sir    Amadas.     Weber.     Robson.     Stephens,  Copenhagen,  i860.     For  Ama- 

das  and  Ydoine,  see  Paris,  G.,  in  Furnivall  Memorial  vol.,   1901,  and 

Hippeau,  Paris,  1863;  and  cf.  the  reference  in  Cursor  Mundi. 
Sir    Beves  of  Hamtoun.  MS.,  Auch.,  etc.   Ed.  Turnbull,  Maitland  Club,  1838, 

and  Kolbing,  E.     E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xlvi,  xlviii,  lxv.     [There  are  many 

continental  texts.]     See  Kolbing,  E.,  Die  AUit.  in  Sir  B.  of  H.     Eng. 

Stud,  xix;  and  Stimming,  A.     Boeve  de  Haumtone.     Halle,  1899. 
Sir    Cleges.     See  bibliography  to  Arthurian  chapter,  ante,  under  Chretien  de 

Troyes. 
Sir    Degarre.     MSS.,  Auch.,  Camb.  F.  ii.  38  frag.,  Douce  frag.  Percy.     Ed. 

Laing,  Abbotsford  Club,   1849;  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  Copland,  c.   1550. 

Utterson,  Percy  Fol.  MS.  (Sir  Degree). 
Sir    Degrevant.     Ed.  Halliwell,  J.  O.     Thornton  Romances.     Camden  Soc. 

1844. 
Sir    Eglamour.     MSS.,  Brit.  Mus.  and  Cambr.  Thornton  Romances.     Ed. 

Halliwell,  J.  O.     Camden  Soc,   1844.     Percy  Folio  MS.     Schleich,  G., 

1906  (Palaestra,  53)  also  in  Herrig's  Archiv,  xcii.     [A  story  of  the  son 

and  mother  marriage  type,  similar  to  Degarre.] 
Sir    Ferumbras.     Ed.   Herrtage,    S.   J.     E.E.T.S.     Ex.   Ser.     xxxiv.     For 

Fierabras,  see  Krober  and  Servois.     Paris,  i860. 
Sir    Gawain  and  the  Green  Knight.     Ed.  Madden,  Bannatyne  Club,  1839; 

Morris.     E.E.T.S.  iv.     See  also  Madden  and  Percy  Folio  MS.,  for  The 

Jeaste  of  Sir  Gawayne,  Gawain  and  the  Carle  of  Carlisle,  Turke  and 

Gowin;  and  see  bibliography  to  chap.  xv. 
Sir    Gawen  and  Dame  Ragnell,  The  Weddynge  of.     Percy.  Ritson.  Madden. 

Percy  Folio  MS.     Child,  Ballads. 
Sir  Gowther.     MSS.,  Advoc  Edin.,  and  B.  M.     Ed.  Utterson,  and  Breul,  K. 

Oppeln,  1886.     Contains  a  bibliography  of  the  Robert  the  Devil  legend. 

See  Kaluza,  M.,  in  Engl.  Stud.  xii.     A  prose  version  of  the  Robert  the 

Devil  story  will  be  found  in  Thoms. 
Sir  Isumbras.      Utterson,    Halliwell.     Thornton   Romances.     Camden    Soc. 

30.      1844;  Schleich,   1901   (Palaestra  15);  Gerould,  G.  H.     MLA.  xx; 

Zupitza,  in  Anglia,  i;  Herrig's  Archiv,  lxxxviii,  xc;  and  Kolbing,  E.,  in 

Engl.     Stud.  III.     Cf .  the  mention  of  the  legend  in  Cursor  Mundi. 
Sir  Launfal.     Ellis,  in  Way's  Fabliaux,   1800;  Ritson;  Halliwell.     Illus.  of 

the  Fairy  Myth  of  a  Midsummer  Night's  Dream.     Shakespeare  Soc, 

1S45;   Erling,    1883;   Kaluza,   in  Engl.   Stud,   xviii;  Schofield,    W.   H. 

]\ILA.  XV,  The  Lays  of  Graelent  and  Lanval.     For  Landavall,  see  IMS., 

Rawlinson,  C.  86;  Kittredge,  G.  L.,  Am.  Jrnl.     Phil,  x,    1889;  Zim- 

mermann,  R.,  Konigsberg,  1900.     For  Sir  Lambewell,  see  Percy  Fol. 

MS.     See  also  under  Marie  de  France. 
Sir  Perceval  of  Galles.     Ed.  Halliwell.     Thornton  Romances,  Camden  Soc 

1844;  Morris,  William,  1895. 
Sir  Orfeo.     MS.,  Harl.,  ed.  Ritson.     MS.,  Auch.,  ed.  Laing.     1822;  Zielke,  O. 

Breslau,  1880.     See  also  Kittredge,  G.  L.,  Am.  Jrnl.  Phil,  vii;  Child,  i. 


524  Bibliography  to 

Sir  Tristrem.  MS.,  Auch.  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Edinburgh,  1804.  Kolbing,  E. 
Die  Nordische  u.  Engliache  Version  der  Tristan-sage.  2  vols.  Heil- 
bronn,  1878,  1882;  McNeill.  Scot.  Text  Soc,  1886;  Warton,  Hist.  Eng. 
Poet.,  Vol.  I,  p.  95. 

Sir  Triamour.     Utterson.     Ed.  Halliwell,  Percy  Soc,  1846.     Percy  Folio  MS. 

Sowdone  of  Babylone,  and  Ferumbras  his  sone.  Roxburghe  Club,  1854. 
Ed.  Hausknecht,  E.     E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  xxxviii. 

Squire  of  Low  Degree,  The.  Copland.  Ritson.  Hazlitt,  W.  C.  Mead,  W. 
E.     Boston,  1904. 

Tars,  King  of.  MSS.,  Auch.,  Vernon.,  BM.  Add.  22,283.  Ed.  Ritson.  See 
Krause,  in  Engl.  Stud,  xi,  and  Holthausen,  F.,  in  Anglia,  xv. 

Thomas  of  Erceldoune,  1220-97.  Scott,  Border  Minstrelsy;  Jamieson,  1806;. 
Laing,  1822;  Halliwell,  Shakespeare  Soc,  1845;  Child.  Romance  and 
Prophecies  of.  Ed.  Murray,  J.  A.  H.,  E.E.T.S.  lxi;  Brandl,  A.,  Berlin, 
1880.  For  foreign  versions  of  the  Tristram  story  see  bibliography  to 
Arthurian  chapter,  and  see  also  under  Sir  Tristrem  above. 

Titus  and  Vespasian.     MS.,  Add.  10036.     See  Ward,  Catal.     vol.  i. 

Tolous,  Erl  of,  and  the  Emperes  of  Almayn.  Ritson.  Liidtke,  G.  Berlin, 
1881. 

Torrent  of  Portugal.  Unique  MS.  in  Chetham  Lib.  Ed.  Halliwell,  1S42. 
Adam,  E.     E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser.  li.     See  also  Zupitza,  J.,  in  Engl.  Stud. 

XV. 

Troy,  Gest  Hystoriall  of  the  Destruction  of.  Ed.  Donaldson,  D.  and  Panton, 
G.A.  E.E.T.S.  xxxix,  lvi.  (MS.,  Hunterian  Coll.  Glasgow.)  In  alliter- 
ative verse.  See  Luick,  K.,  Anglia,  xi.  This  is  one  of  the  many  works 
that  have  been  ascribed  to  Huchoun.  See  Vol.  11  of  present  work.  For 
the  Latin  of  Guido  delle  Colonne,  see  the  Strassburg  vol.  of  1494;  for  the 
French,  see  Joly,  A.  Benoit  de  Sainte-More  et  le  Roman  de  Troie, 
2  vols.  Paris,  1870-71.  Cf.  the  Latin  poem  of  Joseph  of  Exeter  (Jose- 
phus  Iscanus);  Sommer's  edition  of  Caxton's  Recuyell  of  the  Histories 
of  Troye,  1894;  Berger,  H.  Lydgate's  Troy  Book,  E.E.T.S.  Ex.  Ser. 
xcvii,  ci;  the  Troy  Book  from  the  unique  Laud  MS.,  Bodl.,  Ed.  Wiilfing, 
J.  E.,  E.E.T.S.  cxxi,  cxxii;  Troy  Book,  in  Barbour's  Legenden-Samm- 
lung.  Horstmann,  1881.  For  the  French  Roman  de  Thebes,  see  ed. 
Constans,  L.,  Paris,  2  vols.,  1890;  and  for  Eneas,  see  ed.  Salvedra  De 
Grave,  J.,  Halle,  1891. 

Troye,  Seege  of.  Zietsch,  A.  in  Herrig's  Archiv,  lxxii.  Wager,  C.  A. 
New  York,  1899.  See  also  Zietsch,  A.,  Uber  Quelle  u.  Spr.  des  mit- 
telengl.  Gedichts  S.  of  Tr.,  Gottingen,  1884,  and  other  dissertations, 
mentioned  in  Korting,  p.  130. 

Waldef.  For  this  Anglo-Norman  romance,  based  on  an  Old  English  form, 
see  Schofield,  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.  from  the  Norman  Conqueror  to  Chaucer, 
and  his  Story  of  Horn  and  Rimenhild,  MLA.  xviii. 

William  of  Palerne,  or  William  and  the  Werwolf.  MS.,  King's  Coll.,  Cam- 
bridge, 13.  Ed.  Madden,  Roxburghe  Club,  1832,  and  Skeat,  E.E.T.S. 
I,  Ex.  Ser.  A  romance  belonging  to  the  alliterative  revival.  See  Traut- 
mann,  M.,  Altengl.  allit.  Gedichte,  Halle,  1876;  Kaluza,  M.,  Engl.  Stud. 
IV.  See  also  Nicholson,  Academy,  1088,  1893;  Kittredge,  G.  L.,  Har- 
vard Studies  and  Notes,  viii;  Paris,  G.,  in  Romania,  v;  Smith,  K.  F.» 
MLA.  IX ;  and  cf.  the  Werwolf  lai  of  Bisclaveret,  by  Marie  de  France. 

Ypotis.     Horstmann,  C.     Altenglische  Legenden.     1881. 


Chapter  XV  525 

CHAPTER   XV 
SIR  GAWAYNE,  PEARL,  ETC. 

Amours,  M.  Scottish  Alliterative  Poems.  Golagros  and  Gawayne,  Awntyrs 
of  Arthure,  Pistil!  of  Swete  Susan,  Rauf  Coiljear.  Scot.  Text.  Soc. 
1897. 

Banks,  M.M.  Morte  Arthur.  Ed.  Brock,  T.  E.E.T.S.  1865.  Re-edited. 
1900. 

Bradwardine,  T.     De  Causa  Dei.     Ed.  Savile.     1618. 

Brown,  C.  F.  The  author  of  the  Pearl,  considered  in  the  Light  of  his  Theo- 
logical Opinions.     MLA.  xix. 

Brown,  J.  T.  T.     Huchown  of  the  Awle  Ryale.     1902. 

Bruce,  J.  D.     De  Ortu  Waluuanii.     MLA.  xiii. 

Coulton,  G.  G.,  in  MLR.  11,  i. 

Fischer,  J.  Die  stabende  Langzeile  in  den  Werken  des  Gawaindichters. 
BBA.  XI. 

Fuhrmann,  J.  Die  alliterierenden  Sprachformeln  in  Morris's  Early  English 
Alliterative  Poems  u.  im  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Green  Knight.  Ham- 
burg, 1886. 

Gollancz,  I.  Gawayne  and  the  Green  Knight.  Ed.  Morris,  Richard. 
E.E.T.S.      1864.     Reprinted  with  text  revised,  1897. 

Gringolet,  Gawain's  Horse.     Saga-Book  of  the  Viking  Club.     1907. 

The  Parlement  of  the  Thre  Ages  and  Wynnere  and  Wastoure.     Rox- 

burghe  Club,  1897. 

Pearl.     Edited,  with  Modern  English  Rendering,  1891;  revised  edition 

of  text  privately  printed,  1897 ;  new  edition,  with  facsimile  of  MS.,  1907. 
See  also  under  Ralph  Strode,  in  D.  of  N.  B.,  Academy  xxxviii,  and  under 
Neilson,  below. 

Patience,  and  other  alliterative  poems,  with  facsimile  of  MS. 

The  Quatrefoil  of  Love  (an  English  Miscellany).     Oxford,  1900. 

Horstmann,  C.     Altenglische  Legenden.     Neue  Folge.     Heilbronn,  1881. 

Kuhnke,  B.  Die  allit.  Langzeile  in  der  mittelengl.  Romanze  Sir  G.  and 
the  G.  K.     Berlin,  1900. 

McLaughlin,  E.  T.     Studies  in  Medieval  Life  and  Literature.     1894. 

Madden,  Sir  F.      Syr  Gawayne.     Bannatyne  Club,  1839. 

Mitchell,  S.  Weir.  Pearl,  first  half  of  the  poem  rendered  into  Modem  English 
Verse.     New  York,  1906. 

Morris,  Richard.  Gawayne  and  the  Green  Knight.  E.E.T.S.  1864.  Re- 
printed 1869,  1893 ;  and,  with  text  revised  by  Gollancz,  I.,  1897. 

Early    English  Alliterative  Poems,  in  the  West-Midland  Dialect  of  the 

fourteenth  century.     E.E.T.S.     1864  ff. 

Neilson,  George.  Huchown  of  the  Awle  Ryale.  1902.  See  also  G.  N.  in 
Trans.  Phil.  Soc,  Glasgow,  xxxii;  in  Scottish  Antiquary,  xvi;  and  in 
Athenaeum,  i  June,  26  Oct.,  1901,  21  June,  1902,  and  discussion  with 
Gollancz  in  the  same  journal,  1903. 

Northup,  Clark  S.     Study  of  the  Metrical  Structure  of  The  Pearl.     MLA. 

XII. 

Osgood,  C.  G.  The  Pearl.  Belles  Lettres  Series.  [Contains  a  good  bibli- 
ography.] 

Palgrave,  F.  T.     Landscape  in  Poetry.     1897. 

Panton,  G.  A.  and  Donaldson,  D.  The  Gest  Hystoriale  of  the  Destruction 
of  Troy.     E.E.T.S.     1869-74. 


5^6  Bibliography  to 

Paris,  Gaston.     Hist.  Litt.     Vol.  xxx. 

Schofield,  W.  H.     The  Nature  and  Fabric  of  the  Pearl.     MLA.      Vol.  xix. 

Skeat,  W.  W.     The  Wars  of  Alexander.     E.E.T.S.     1886. 

Steffler,  G.     Sage  of  Jerusalem.     Marburg,  189 1. 

Thomas,  M.  C.     Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Green  Knight,  etc.     Zurich,  1883. 

Ttautmann,  M.     In  Anglia,  i.     Der  Dichter  Huchown  u.  seine  Werke.  See 

also  in  Uber  Verfasser  u.  Entstehungszeit  Einiger  Allitererender  Gedichte 

des  Altenenglischen.     Halle,  1876. 
Weston,    Jessie    L.     The    Legend    of    Sir    Gawain.     1897;    and    Arthurian 

Romances  unrepresented  in  Malory,  1898. 

See  also  Kolbing,  E.      Engl.  Stud,  xvi;  Holthausen.      Herrig's  Archiv,. 
xc;  Bradley,  H.     Academy,  xxxviii;  Luick,  in  Anglia,  xi. 

CHAPTER   XVI 

LATER  TRANSITION  ENGLISH,  I 

General  Authorities 

Brandl's  Mittelenglische  Lit.  in  Paul's  Grundriss. 

Gross,  C.     Sources  and  Literature  of  English  History  from  the  Earliest 

Times  to  about  1485.     1900. 
JuUeville,   L.   Petit  de   (ed.).     Histoire  de  la  langue  et  de  la  Litterature 

fran^aise  des  Origines  k  1900.     Tome  i.     Paris,  1896. 
Ritson,  J.     Ancient  English  Metrical  Romances.     3  vols.     1802.     Ed.  Gold- 

smid,  E.     Edinburgh,  1884. 

Cursor  Mundi 

Hupe.     Genealogie  u.  Uberlieferung  der  MSS.  des  C.  M.     Erlangen,  1886. 

Morris,  R.  Cursor  Mundi.  A  Northumbrian  Poem  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. In  four  versions.  E.E.T.S.  3  vols.  1874  ff.  (Nos.  57,  59,  62, 
66,  68,  99,  loi,  with  studies  by  Hupe  and  Hanisch  on  the  sources,  Text, 
Filiation  of  the  MS.,  Dialect,  etc.)     See  Kaluza,  M.,  in  Engl.  Stud.  xi. 

Adam  Davy 

Fumivall,  F.  J.  Adam  Davy's  Five  Dreams  about  Edward  II.  E.E.T.S. 
1878. 

Legendaries,  Homilies,  etc. 

(For  the  numerous  MSS.  and  for  an  excellent  bibliography  of  separate 
lives  and  legends  of  the  Saints  see  K5rting's  Grundriss.) 
Becker,  E.     Medieval  Visions  of  Heaven  and  Hell.     Baltimore,  1899, 
St.  Brendan.     For  further  details  of  this  beautiful  legend  see  Nutt,  A.,  and 

Meyer,  K.,  in  The  Voyage  of  Bran,  2  vols.,  Grimm  Library,  1895,  1897; 

Wright,  T.,  Percy  Soc,   1844;  M.  J.  de  Goeje's  La  legende  de  Saint 

Brandan,  Leyden,  1890;  Fr.  Michel,  Paris,  1878;  Schirmer,  Zur  Bren- 

danus   Legende,   Leipzig,    1888;   Zimmer,   Brendan's  Meerfahrt,   ZDA. 

XXXIII  (N.  F.  xxi);  Benoit's  Vie  de  St.  Brendan. 
Crane,  T.  F.     Medieval  Sermon  Books  and  Stories.     Amer.  Philos.   Soc. 

xxi. 
Caxton.     The  Golden  Legend  (Jacobus  a  Voragine's  Legenda  Aurea).     1483. 

Ed.  Ellis,  F.  S.     1900. 


Chapter  XVI  527 

Furnivall,  F.  J.     Early  English  Poems  and  Lives  of  Saints.     Berlin,  1862. 

Gerould,  G.  H.     North  Eng.  Horn.     Lancaster,  Pa.,  1902. 

Henry  of  Saltrey  (fi.  11 50).  Author  of  Purgatorium  Sancti  Patricii.  The 
popularity  of  the  "descent"  motive  is  evident  from  tlj^-ffumerous  forms 
in  which  it  occurs,  in  English,  Latin,  and  Frencl^  See  Wright's  St. 
Patrick's  Purgatory,  1844;  also  Forbes,  A.  P.,  Calendar  of  Scottish 
Saints,  Edinburgh,  1872;  Krapp,  G.  P.,  Legend  of  St.  Patrick's  Pur- 
gatory, Baltimore,  1900,  and  the  French  version  of  Marie  de  France; 
Massingham's  Florilegium  insulae  Sanctorum  Hiberniae,  Paris,  1624; 
Matthew  Paris's  Chronica  Majora;  Smith,  L.  Toulmin,  in  Engl.  Stud.  ix. 

Horstmann,  C.  Altenglische  Legenden.  Paderborn,  1875.  [See  contents 
in  Korting.] 

Sammlung  Altenglische  Legenden.     Heilbronn,  1878. 

■ Altenglische  Legenden.     Neue  Folge.     Heilbronn,  1881. 

The  Early  South  English  Legendary  or  Lives  of  the  Saints.     E.E.T.S. 

1887. 

Minor  Poems   of   the   Vernon    MS.,    Part    i.     E.E.T.S.     [See   p.    138 

for  a  list  of  Miracles  of  Our  Lady  in  the  Index  to  Vernon  MS. 
Other  interesting  poems  in  the  Early  English  Text  Society's  volume 
are :  The  visions  of  Seynt  Poul  wan  he  was  rapt  in  to  paradys.  The  Pope 
trental,  A  dispitison  bitwene  a  god  man  and  the  devel  and  Castel  of 
Love  (cf .  The  Myrour  of  lewed  men,  in  the  Appendix  to  Part  i) ;  and,, 
in  Part  11 :  Her  is  a  disputison  bitwene  child  Jhesu  and  Maistres  of  the 
lawe  of  Jewus,  A  disputison  bytwene  a  cristenemon  and  a  Jew,  Proverbes 
of  diverse  profetes  and  of  poetes  and  othur  seyntes,  Her  biginneth  luytel 
Caton,  Disputation  between  Mary  and  the  Cross,  Susannah,  or  Seemly 
Susan,  Fy  on  a  faint  Friend,  This  World  fares  as  a  Fantasy,  etc.] 

Laing,  D.  Owain  Miles  and  other  inedited  fragments  of  Ancient  English. 
Poetry.     Edinburgh,  1837. 

Leonard,  A.  L.     Zwei .  .  .  Geschichten  aus  der  Holle.     Zurich,   1891. 

Mussafia,  A.  Studien  zu  den  mittel-alterlichen  Marienlegenden.  Sitz.  d. 
Wiener  Akad.  der  Wissen.     Vienna,  1887  ff. 

Retzlaff.  Untersuchungen  iiber  den  nordenglischen  Legendencyclus  der 
MSS.,  Harl.  4196  u.  Cott.  Tib.  E.  vii.     Berlin,  i  889. 

Small,  J.  English  Metrical  Homilies,  from  MSS.  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
Edinburgh,  1862. 

Stevenson,  J.  Anglo-Saxon  and  Early  English  Psalter.  Surtees  Society, 
2  vols.     1843-4. 

Wright,  T.     Early  English  Poetry.     Percy  Soc. 

Robert  Mannyng  of  Brunne 

Boemer,  O.     Die  Sprache  R.  M.  of  B.  und  ihr  Verhaltnis  zur  neuenglischen 

Mundart.     Stud,  zur  eng.  Phil.  12.     Halle,  1904. 
Cowper,  J.  Meadows.     Meditations  on  the  Supper  of  our  Lord,  and  the 

Hours  of  the   Passion,   by  Cardinal  John   Bonaventura.     Drawn   into 

English  Verse  by  R.M.  of  B.     E.E.T.S.      1875. 
Furnivall,  F.  J.     Robert  of  Brunne's  Handlyng  Synne,  a.d.   1303.     With 

those  parts  of  the  Anglo-French  Treatise  on  which   it  was  founded, 

William  of  Wadington's  Manuel  des  Pechiez.      Re-edited  from  MSS.  in 

the  British  Museum  and  Bodleian  Libraries.     Part  i,   1901,  11,    1903, 

(Prev.  ed.  Roxburghe  Club,  1862.) 
The  Story  of  England,  by  R.  M.  of  B.     Ed.  from  MSS.  at  Lambeth 


528  Bibliography  to 

Palace  and  the  Inner  Temple.     Part  ii,  Rolls  Series.     2  vols.     1887. 

Cf.  Hales,  J.  W.,  in  Snell's  Age  of  Chaucer,  p.  xlvi,  1901. 
Hearne,  T.     Peter  Langtoft's  Chronicle  (as  Illustrated  and  Improved  by 

Robert  of  Brunne).      From  the  death  of  Cadwalader  to  the  end  of  King 

Edward  I's  reign.     2  vols.     Oxford,  1725. 
Hellmers,  G.     XJeber  die  Sprache  R.  M.  of  B.,  und  iiber  die  autorschaft  der 

ihm  zu  geschriebenen  "Meditations  on  the  Supper  of  our  Lord."     G6t- 

tingen,  1885. 
Preussner,  O.     R.  M.  of  B.'s  Uebersetzung  von  Pierre  de  Langtoft's  Chroni- 

icle,  und  ihr  Verhaltniss  zum  Originale.     Breslau,  1891. 
Thiimmig,  M.     tJber  die  Altenglischen  Ubersetzung  der  Reimchronik  Peter 

Langtofts  durch  R.  M.  v.  B.     Anglia,  xiv. 
Zetsche,  A.  W.     Ueber  den  ersten  Theil  der  Bearbeitung  des  "Roman  de 

Brut "  des  Wace,  durch  R.  M.  of  B.     Reudnitz.     Leipzig,  1887. 

Dan  Michel's  Ayenbite  of  Inwyt 
Evers,  R.  W.     Beitrage  zur  Erklarung  und  Text  Kritik  von  D.  M.'s  A.  of  I. 

Erlangen,  1888. 
Konrath,  M.     Die  Lateinische  Quelle  zu  A.  of  I.     Eng.  Stud,  xii,  259. 
Meyer,   Paul.       Notice  sur  le  Manuscrit  27    de  la  Bibliotheque  d'Alenjon 

(Somme  le  Roi).      Bulletin  de  la  Societe  des  Anciens  Textes  Frangais, 

No.  2.     Paris,  1892. 
Morris,  R.     D.  M.'s  A  of  I.,  or  Remorse  of  Conscience,  in  the  Kentish  Dialect, 

with   an    Introduction   on   the   Peculiarities   of    the    Southern   Dialect. 

E.E.T.S.      1866. 
Petersen,   Kate  O.     The  Sources  of  the  Parson's  Tale.     Radcliffe  College 

Monographs.     No.  12.     Camb.  Mass.,  1901. 
Stevenson,  J.     The  A.  of  I.     Roxburghe  Club.      1855. 
Varnhagen,  H.     Beitrage  zur  Erklarung  und  Textkritik  von  D.  M.'s  A.  of  I. 

Engl.  Stud.  I,  397,  II,  27. 

Laurence    Minot 

Hall,  Joseph.     Minot,  Laurence,  The  Poems  of.     Oxford,  1887,  1897. 
Ritson.     Poems  on  Interesting  Events  in  the  Reign  of  King  Edward  III. 

Written  in  the  Year  m.c.c.c.lii  by  L.  M.      1795,  1825. 
Scholle,  W.     Minot,  Laurence.     Leider.     Mit  Grammatisch-Metrischer  Ein- 

leitung.     Strassburg.     QF.  Lii. 
Wright,  T.     Political  Poems  and  Songs  Relating  to  English  History  Com- 
posed during  the  Period  From  the  Accession  of  Edward  III  to  that  of 

Richard  II.      Rolls  Series.      1859. 

Robert  of  Gloucester 
Brossmann,  K.     Ueber  die  Quellen  Mittelenglischen  Chronik  des  R.  v.  G. 

Breslau,  1887. 
EUmer,  W.     Ueber  die  Quellen  der  Reim  Chronik  R.  v.  G.     Halle,  1886. 
Strohmeyer,    H.     Der    Stil    der    Mittelenglischen    Reim-Chronik    R.    v.    G. 

Berlin,  1891. 
Wright,  W.  A.     The  Metrical  Chronicle  of  R.  of  G.     Rolls  Series.     2  vols. 

1887.     See  also  ed.  Hearne,  T.     Oxford,  1724;  and  Anglia,  xiii;  Archiv 

f.  d.  stud.  d.  neueren  Spr.  u.  Lit.  lxxxvii. 

William  of  Shoreham 
Konrath,  M.     The  Poems  of   William   of  Shoreham.     Re-edited  from  the 

unique  MS.  in  the  British  Museum.     E.E.T.S.     Parti.     1902. 


Chapter  XVII  529 

Wright,   T.     The   Religious  Poems  of  William  of  Shoreham.     Percy  Soc. 
1849. 

CHAPTER  XVII 
LATER  TRANSITION  ENGLISH,  II 

A  few  works  on  the  social  and  political  history  of  England  during  the 
Middle  Ages  are  included  in  the  bibliography  to  this  chapter  and  in  the  biblio- 
graphy to  the  chapter  on  Piers  the  Plowman  in  the  next  volume.  Further 
writings  will  be  found  mentioned  in  the  chapter  in  vol.  ii  on  fugitive  and 
social  literature  to  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Ashley,  W.  J.     Edward  III  and  his  Wars,  1327-60.     English  History  from 

Contemp.  Writers.      1887. 
Ball,  John.     See  Walsingham's  Historia  Anglicana  and  Knighton's  Com- 

pilatio  de  eventibus  Angliae  in  Twysden's  Historiae  Anglicanae  Scrip- 
tores  Decem;  Green,  J.  R.,  Short  History,  1884,  pp.  243-4;  Morris,  W., 

A  Dream  of  John  Ball,  1888. 
Bateson,  Mary.      Medieval  England,  1066-1350.      1905. 
Barnard,  F.  P.     Companion  to  English  History  (Middle  Ages).      1902. 
Bartsch,  K.,  and  Koschwitz,  E.     Chrestomathie  Provenjale  (x^xv^  siecles). 

2  vols.     6th  ed.     1903  ff. 
Bedier,  J.     Les  Fabliaux.     Paris,  1893. 
Blaauw,   W.  H.     The  Barons'  Wars  (Lewes  and  Evesham  Battles).     Ed. 

Pearson,  C.  H.      1844-71. 
Boddeker,  K.     Altenglische  Dichtungen  des  MS.  Harl.  2253.      Berlin,  1878. 
Brunetiere,  F.     Les  Fabliaux  du  moyen  age,  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes. 

I  Sept.  1893. 
Courthope,  W.  J.     Hist.  Eng.  Poetry.     See  chapters  on  The  Character  and 

Sources  of  Medieval  Poetry,  and  the  Progress  of  Allegory  in  English 

Poetry. 
Chevalier,  C.  U.  J.     Repert.  des  sources  hist,  du  moyen  age,  bio-bibliog. 

1877  ff. 
Chambers,  E.  K.,  and  Sidgwick,  F.    Early  English  Lyrics,  1907.     [Contains  a 

useful  list  of  MSS.  and  books.] 
Crane,   T.    F.     Medieval   Sermon-books  and  stories.     Proc.  Amer.   Philos. 

Soc.  XXI. 
Creighton,  C.     A  History  of  Epidemics  in  Britain.     Cambridge,     1892. 
Cunningham,  W.     The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  during 

the  Early  and  Middle  Ages.     Cambridge,  1905. 
Davenport,  F.  G.     A  Classified  List  of  Printed  Original  Materials  for  English 

^Manorial   and   Agrarian   History   during  the   Middle   Ages.     Radcliffe 

College  Monographs,  No.  6. 
Duff,  E.  G.     King  Salomon  and  Marcolf.     1892. 
Fabyan,  R.     Xew  Chronicles  of  England  and  France.     Pynson,  1516;  ed, 

Ellis,  181 1.      (For  Bannockburn  songs,  etc.) 
Freeman's  Norman  Conquest.     Vol.  iv  (on  Hereward). 
Furnivall,  F.  J.     Early  English  Poems.     Berlin,   1862.     For  the  Land  of 

Cokaygne,  etc.     MS.  Harl.  913.     See  also  Hickes'  Thesaurus,  and  cf. 

L'Ordre  de  Bel  Aise  in  Wright's  Political  Songs,  Camden  Soc,  1839. 
Furnivall,    F.  J.,  and  Horstmann,   C.      Minor  Poems  of  the  Vernon  MS. 

E.E.T.S.  1892,  1901. 
VOL.  :.— 34 


530  Bibliography  to 

Gamier,  R.  M.     Annals  of  the  Peasantry.     1895. 

Gasquet,  F.  A.     The  Great  Pestilence.     1894. 

Gesta  Romanorum.  Printed  first  at  Utrecht,  then  at  Cologne,  c.  1472-5. 
First  English  edition  printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  c.  1510-15.  For 
a  full  discussion  of  the  different  MSS.  used,  the  sources  of  the  groups, 
etc.,  see  the  indispensable  edition  of  Oesterley,  H.,  Berlin,  1872.  The 
following  editions  may  also  be  mentioned,  of  which  the  first  is  of  most 
importance  for  our  purposes:  Herrtage,  S.  J.  H.,  Early  English  Versions 
of  Gesta  Romanorum,  E.E.T.S.,  1899;  Madden,  F.,  in  Roxburghe  Club, 
1838;  Swan,  C.  (Trans.),  1824-1906;  Warton's  History  of  English 
Poetry,  Dissert,  iii. 

Guillaume  le  Marechal,  L'Histoire  de.  A  French  rimed  life  of  the  Regent  of 
England  during  the  minority  of  Henry  III.  Ed.  Meyer,  P.,  1891-1902. 
[A  work  of  much  value  for  the  social  history  of  the  times.] 

Hazlitt,  W.  C.  Remains  of  the  Early  Popular  Poetry  of  England.  4  vols. 
1864-6.     (Tournament  of  Tottenham,  etc.) 

Hendyng,  Proverbs  of.  See  Wright  and  Halliwell,  Reliquiae  Antiquae; 
Kemble,  J.,  Salomon  and  Saturnus,  1848;  Varnhagen,  in  Anglia,  iv,  etc. 

Hereward.  For  fuller  (legendary)  details  concerning  this  interesting  outlaw 
see  Gesta  Herewardi  Saxonis,  in  F.  Michel's  Chroniques  Anglo-Nor- 
mandes,  Rouen,  1836  ff.,  and  in  T.  Wright's  Caxton  Soc.  edition  of 
Gaimar's  Estorie  des  Engles,  and,  of  course,  Kingsley's  Hereward  the 
Wake. 

Hervieux,  L.     Fabulistes  Latins.      1893-4. 

Horstmann,  C.  Altenglische  Legenden.  Paderborn,  1875;  Heilbronn,  1878, 
1 88 1.     (For  legends  of  the  Childhood  of  Jesus,  etc.) 

Hutton,  W.  H.  The  Misrule  of  Henry  III  and  Simon  de  Montfort.  2  vols. 
English  History  from  Contemporary  Writers. 

Jacobs,  J.  Jewish  Ideals,  1896,  etc.  Berachyah  Nakden  may  be  mentioned 
here  as  a  fabulist,  and  tales  against  the  Jews  will  be  found  in  the  Vernon 
MS.  Chaucer's  tale  of  the  schoolboy  who  sings  the  Alma  Redemptoris 
Mater  is  too  well  known  to  call  for  further  comment. 

Jataka.     6  vols.     Trans.  Cowell,  Rouse,  etc.     Cambridge,  in  progress. 

Jehan  le  Bel.  Histoire  vraye  et  notable  des  nouvelles  guerres  et  choses 
avenues  I'an  mil  cccxxvi  jusques  a  I'an  lxi  en  France,  en  Angleterre,  en 
Escoce,  en  Bretaigne  et  ailleurs,  et  principalement  des  haults  faitz  du 
roy  Edowart  d'Angleterre  et  des  deux  roys  Philippe  et  Jehan  de  France. 
A  contemporary  record  of  Edward's  Scotch  Wars.  Ed.  Polain,  L. 
Brussels,  1863. 

Jewish  writers.  On  the  indebtedness  of  letters  to  the  Jew  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  their  part  in  the  social  life  of  the  community,  see  Snell,  F.  J.,. 
The  Fourteenth  Century,  p.  420;  Jacobs,  J.,  and  Wolf,  L.,  Bibliotheca 
Anglo-Judaica,  1889;  Jacobs,  J.,  The  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  1893, 
Eng.  Hist,  from  Contemp.  Writers  Series;  Steinschneider,  Die  hebrS- 
ischen  Uebersetzungen  des  Mittelalters,  Berlin,  1893. 

Joly,  A.     Marie  de  France  et  les  Fables  au  moyen  age.     Caen,  1863. 

Jusserand,  J.  J.  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  fourteenth  cent.  Eng. 
trans.      1887-9. 

Kingsford,  C.  L.     The  Song  of  Lewes.     Oxford,  1890. 

Laing,  David.  Poems  from  Auchinleck  MS.  Abbotsford  Club  Pub.  (A 
Penniworth  of  Witte,  etc.)     1857.     See  also  Kolbing,  E.,  Engl.  Stud.  vii. 

Langtoft,  Peter  of,  Augustinian  Canon  of  Bridlington  (d.  1307?).     Author 


Chapter  XVII  53i 

of  the  popular  Chronicle,  written  in  Yorkshire  French,  based  on  Geoffrey 

of  Monmouth,  and  of  value  as  a  contemporary  account  of  the  Scotch 

wars.     Ed.  Wright,  T.     Rolls  Series.     2  vols.      1866-8.     See  also,  ante, 

Robert  Mannyng  of  Brunne. 
Matzner,  E.     Altenglische  Sprachproben.      Berlin,  1867.      (For  Dame  Siriz, 

Land  of  Cokaygne,  Fox  and  Wolf,  etc.,  etc.)     See  also  his  Altfranz., 

Lieder,  1853. 
Mannhardt,  W.     Wald-  und  Feldkulte.     Berlin,  1877, 
Maurice,   C.   E.     Lives  of  English   Popular  Leaders  in  the  Middle  Ages 

(Langton,  Tyler,  Ball,  etc.).      1872-5. 
Meril,  E.  du.     Poesie  pop.  lat.  ant.  au  xii*  siecle  and  du  moyen  age.      1843. 
Meyer,  P.     Melanges  de  Poesie  Anglo-Normande.     Romania,  iv.      1875. 

Recueil  d'Anciens  Textes  Bas-Latins,  Provenjaux  et  Fr.     1874  ff. 

Milman,  H.  H.      Latin  Christianity.      1854  ff. 

Montaiglon,  A.  de,  and  Raynaud,  G.     Recueil  general  et  complet  des  fabliaux 

des  xiii^  et  xiv«  siecles.     6  vols.     Paris,  1872  ff. 
Odo  of  Cheriton.     See  Douce's  Illustrations  of  Shakespeare,  1807,  and  Her- 

vieux,  above. 
Paris,   G.     Les  Contes  orientaux  dans  la  litt.  fr.   au  moyen  dge.     Paris, 

1895. 
Paris,  P.     Chansonniers  in  Hist.  Litt.,  xxiii.     1856. 
Paterson,  W.  Romaine.     The  Nemesis  of  Nations.     1906. 
Pearson,  C.  H.     Historical  Maps  of  England  (on  social  and  political  conditions 

of  the  Middle  Ages,  etc.).     1867  ff. 
Percy,  T.     Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry.      1765  ff. 
Petrus  Alphonsus.     Disciplina  Clericalis.     See  Wright's  Latin  Stories  and 

Ellis's  Metrical  Romances. 
Pilkington,  Gilbert.     See  W.  Bedwell's  edition  of  The  Tumament  of  Totten- 
ham, or  the  wooing,  winning,  and  wedding  of  Tibbe,  etc.,  163 1,  and  T. 

Wright's,  1836. 
Prothero,  G.  W.     Simon  de  Montfort.      1877. 
Raynaud,  G.     Bibliographic   des  Chansonniers  Fr.  des  xiii^  et  xiV  siecles. 

1884. 
Reville,  A.,  and  Petit-Dutaillis,  C.     Le  Soul^vement  des  Travailleurs  d'Angle- 

terre  en  1381.     Paris,  1898.     See  also  Eng.  Hist.  Rev.,  July,  1898,  and 

Powell's  Rising  in  East  Anglia.     Cambridge,  1896. 
Reynard  the  Fox.     Printed  by  Caxton,  1481:  ed.  Arber,  1880;  Goldsmid, 

1884;  Thoms,  W.  J.    Percy  Soc.     1844;  Ellis,  F.  S.     The  History  of 

Reynard  the  Fox  .  .  .  turned  into  English  Verse.      1897;   Grimm,  J. 

Reinhart  Fuchs.     Berlin,  1834;  Jacobs,  J.     Reynard  the  Foxe.     1893; 

Martin,  E.     Le  Roman  de  Renart.     Strassburg,  1882  ff.;  Paris,  G.     Le 

Roman  de  Renard.     Paris,  1895;  Petit  de  Julleville.     Hist,  de  la  Lang. 

et  de  la  Litt.  fr.  Tome  11,  moyen  age.     Sudre,  L.,  on  Les  Fables  et  le 

Roman  du  Renard;  Bedier,  J.,  on  Les  Fabliaux,  and  the  bibliographies 

attached;  Potvin,  Ch.      Le  Roman  du  Renard.  .  .  precede  d'une  introd. 

et  d'une  bibl.     Bruxelles,  1861.     See  also  Coll.  des  epopees  nat.  le  roman 

du  Renard.     Paris,  1891 ;  Sudre,  L.     Les  Sources  du  Roman  de  Renart. 

Paris,  1893. 
Ritson,  J.  and  Hazlitt,  W.  C.     Ancient  Songs  from  the  Time  of  King  Henry 

HI  to  the  Revolution.  5  vols.  1790-1S70. 
Schluter,  A.  On  MS.  Harl.  2253.  Archiv,  lxxi. 
Schmeller,  J.  A.     Carmina  Burana.     Stuttgart,  1847  ff. 


532  Bibliography  to 

Seebohm,  F.     The  Black  Death.     Fortnightly  Review.     1865. 

Smith,  Lucy  Toulmin,  and  Meyer,  P.     Les  Contes  moralises  de  Nicole  Bozon. 

Paris,  1889. 
Snell,   F.  J.     The  Fourteenth  Century.     Periods  of  European  Literature. 

1899. 
Stubbs,  W.     Constitutional  History  of  England.     Oxford,  1874  ff. 
Symonds,  J.  A.     Wine,  Women,  and  Song:  Medieval  Latin  Students'  Songs 

now  first  trans,  into  English  verse,  with  an  essay.      1907. 
Ten  Brink,  B.     Hist.  Eng.  Lit.     Vol.  i. 
Traill,  H.  D.     Social  England.     Vols,  i,  11. 
Voigt,  E.     Isengrimus.     Halle,  1884.     See  also  Klienere  lateinische  Denk- 

maier  der  Thiersage.     Strassburg,  1878. 
Wallon,  M.      Richard  IL     Paris,  1864. 
Warton.T.     Hist.  Eng.  Poetry.     §§i,ii. 

Wattenbach,  W.     Latin  Songs  of  the  Middle  Ages.     ZDA.  xv. 
Wright,  T.     Anecdota  Literaria;  a  collection  of  short  poems  in  English, 

Latin  and  French,  illustrative  of  the  literature  and  history  of  England 

in  the  thirteenth  century,   and  more  especially  of  the  condition  and 

manners  of  the  different  classes  of  society.     1844.     (For  Dame  Siriz,  MS. 

Bodl.  Digby  86;etc.) 
■ Anglo-Latin  Satirical  Poets  and  Epigrammatists  of  the  twelfth  century. 

Rolls  Series.      2  vols.      1892. 

History  of  Domestic  Manners  during  the  Middle  Ages.      1862,  1864. 

Essays  on  the  Literature,  Superstitions  and  History  of  England  during 

the  Middle  Ages. 

A  History  of  Caricature  and  Grotesque  in  Literature  and  Art.     1865. 

Latin  Stories  from  MSS.  of  the  xiiith  and  xivth  centuries.     A  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  of  fiction.     Percy  Soc.     1842. 
Political  Songs  of  England  from  the  Reign  of  John  to  Edward  IL 

Camden  Society.     1839. 
Wright,  T.     Specimens  of  Lyric  Poetry  composed  in  England  in  the  Reign 

of  Edward  L     Percy  Soc.     1842. 
Turnament  of  Totenham  and  the  Feest.     Printed  from  Camb.  Univ. 

Lib.  MS.     1836. 
Wright,  T.  and  Halliwell,  J.  O.     Reliquiae  Antiquae.     2  vols.     1841-3.     [A 

valuable  collection  of  early  verses.     Contains  The  Vox  and  the  Wolf, 

MS.  Bodl.  Digby  86;  Proverbs  of  Hendyng;  etc.] 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  PROSODY  OF  OLD  AND  MIDDLE  ENGLISH 

Deutschbein,  M.     Zur  Entwicklung  des  engl.  Alliterations  Verses.     Halle, 

1902. 
Guest,    E.    A.     History  of   English    Rhythms  from   the   fifteenth  century 

Downwards,  1838.      2  vols.,  and  ed.  Skeat,  W.  W.,  1882. 
Kluge,  F.     Zur  Gesch.  des  Reimes  in  Altgerm.     P.  and  B.'s  Beitr.  ix. 
Lewis,  C.  M.     The  foreign  sources  of  modern  English  versification.     Berlin, 

1898. 
Luick,  K.  and  Schipper,  J.     In  Paul's  Grundriss,  §  ix.     Strassburg. 
Mayor,  J.   B.     A   Handbook  of  Modern  English   Metre.     [Does  not  treat, 

otherwise  than  incidentally,  of  metre  before  Henry  VIII.]     Cambridge, 

1903- 


Chapter  XIX  533 

Mayor,  J.  B.     Chapters  on  English  Metre.     2nded.     Cambridge,  190 1. 

Mone,  F.  J.     Hymni  Latini  Medii  Aevi.     3  vols.      1853  ff. 

Omond,  T.  S.     English  Metrists.     Tunbridge  Wells,  1903. 

Pilch,  L.     Umwandlung  des  Altenglischen  Alliterationsverses  in  den  mittel- 

englischen  Reimvers.      Konigsberg,  1904. 
Rieger,  M.     Die  alt-  und  ags.  Verskunst.     ZDPhil.  vii. 
Saintsbury,  G.     A  History  of  English  Prosody,  from  the  twelfth  century 

to  the  present  day.     Vol  i.      1906. 
The  Flourishing  of  Romance  and  the  Rise  of  Allegory.      1897.     [See  esp. 

the  chapters  on  the  Function  of  Latin  and  the  Making  of  English, 

for  a  discussion  of  the  influence  of  the  medieval  hymns  of  the  12th  and 

13th  centuries  on  the  prosody  of  the  vernacular.] 
Schipper,  J.     Englische  Metrik.     Bonn,  1881  flf. 

Grundriss  der  Engl.  Metrik.     Vienna  and  Leipzig,  1895. 

Sievers,  E.     In  Paul  and  Braune's  Beitr.  x,  xii,  xiii,  xv,  and  in  Paul's 

Grundriss,  ix. 
Vetter,  F.     Zum  Muspilli   u.   z.  germ.   Alliterationspoesie.     Vienna,    1872. 

A.  R.  W. 
CHAPTER  XIX 

CHANGES  IN  THE  LANGUAGE  TO  THE  DAYS  OF  CHAUCER 

I.     Old  English 

Bosworth,  Joseph,  and  Toller,  T.  N.  Anglo-Saxon  Dictionary.  In  4  vols. 
Oxford,  1882-98. 

Bright,  J.  W.     An  Outline  of  Anglo-Saxon  Grammar.      1895. 

Biilbring,  K.  D.  Altenglisches  Elementarbuch.  Parti.  Lautlehre.  Heidel- 
berg, 1902. 

Cook,  A.  S.     A  First  Book  in  Old  English.     Third  edition.      1903. 

A  Glossary  of  the  Old  Northumbrian  Gospels.     Halle,  1894. 

Cosijn,  P.  J.     Altwestsachsische  Grammatik.     2  vols.     Haag,   1883-6. 

Grein,  C.  W.  M.  Sprachschatz  der  Angelsachsischen  Dichter.  2  vols. 
Cassel,  1 86 1-4. 

Hall,  J.  R.  Clark.     A  Concise  Anglo-Saxon  Dictionary.     1895. 

Mayhew,  A.  L.     Synopsis  of  Old  English  Phonology.     Oxford,  1891. 

Napier,  A.  S.     Old  English  Glosses.     Oxford,  1900. 

Pogatscher,  A.  Zur  Lautlehre  der  Griechischen  und  Lateinischen  und 
Romanischen  Lehnworter  im  Altenglischen.      Strassburg,  1888. 

Sievers,  Eduard.  Angelsachsische  Grammatik.  Third  edition.  Halle, 
1898. 

Sweet,  Henry.     An  Anglo-Saxon  Reader.      Seventh  edition.     Oxford. 

The  Student's  Dictionary  of  Anglo-Saxon.     Oxford,  1897. 

II.     Middle  English 

Bjorkman,  E.     Scandinavian  Loan-words  in  Middle  English.     Part  i.     Halle, 

1900. 
Brate,  E.     Nordische  Lehnworter  im  Ormulum.     Halle,  1884. 
Emerson,  O.  F.     A  Middle-English  Reader.     1905. 
Kaluza,    M.     Historische    Grammatik    der    Englischen    Sprache.     2nd    ed. 

Part  II.     Berlin,  1906. 
Matzner,   E.     Altenglische   Sprachproben.     Vol.   11.     Worterbuch.     Berlin, 

1878  ff.     [In  progress.] 


534  Bibliography  to 

Morris,  R.  and  Skeat,  W.  W.  Specimens  of  Early  English.  Part  i,  a.d. 
1150-A.D.  1300.  2nd.  ed.  Part  11,  a.d.  1298-A.D.  1393.  4th  ed.  Ox- 
ford, 1884-1900. 

Morsbach,  L.     Mittelenglische  Grammatik.     Parti.     Halle,  1896. 

Stratmann,  F.  A.  A  Middle-English  Dictionary.  New  Edition,  revised,  en- 
larged, and  rearranged  by  Henry  Bradley.     Oxford,  1891. 

Ten  Brink,  B.  Chaucer's  Sprache  und  Verskunst.  Second  edition  by 
Kluge,  F.  Leipzig,  1899.  English  translation :  The  Language  and  Metre 
of  Chaucer.     Translated  by  Smith,  M.  Bentinck.      1901. 

IIL     General  History  of  English 

Bradley,  H.     The  Making  of  English.      1904. 

Emerson,  O.  F.     The  History  of  the  English  Language.     New  York  and 

London,  1894. 
Jespersen,  O.     Growth  and  Structure  of  the    English    Language.     Leipzig. 

1906. 
Kellner,  L.     Historical  Outlines  of  English  Syntax.      1892. 
Koch,    C.    F.     Historische    Grammatik    der   Englischen    Sprache.     3    vols. 

Cassel,  1863  and  later  years. 
Matzner,    E.     Englische    Grammatik.     3    parts.     Berlin,    i860    and    later 

years. 
Kluge,  F.     Geschichte  der  Englischen  Sprache,  in  H.  Paul's  Grundriss  der 

Germanischen  Philologie,  vol.  i.     Second  edition.     Strassburg,  1898. 
Lounsbury,   T.    R.     The   History  of  the   English   Language.     New  York, 

1901. 
Morris,    R.     Historical    Outlines    of    English    Accidence.     Revised    by    L. 

Kellner,  with  the  assistance  of  H.  Bradley.      1895. 
Murray,  J.  A.  H,  Bradley,  H.,  and  Craigie,  W.  A.     A  New  English  Dictionary 

on  Historical  Principles.     Oxford,  1884-1907.     [In  progress.] 
Skeat,  W.  W.     Concise  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language. 

New  Edition,  rewritten  and  rearranged.     Oxford,  1901. 
Etymological   Dictionary   of  the   English    Language.     Third  edition, 

Oxford. 

Notes  on  English  Etymology.     Oxford,  1901. 

Principles  of  English  Etymology.      2  vols.     Oxford,  1887-91. 

Storm,  J.      Englische    Philologie.      Leipzig,  1881,  etc. 

Sweet,  Henry.     A  New  English  Grammar,  Logical  and  Historical.     2  vols. 

Oxford,  1892-8. 

A  History  of  English  Sounds  from  the  Earliest  Period.     Oxford,  1888. 

Toller,  T.  N.     Outlines  of  the  History  of  the  English  Language.     Cambridge, 

1900. 
Webster,    N.     International    Dictionary    of    the    English    Language.     Ed. 

Porter,  N. 
Wyld,  H.  C.     Historical  Study  of  the  Mother  Tongue.      1907. 

[See  also  Keogh,  A.     Some  general  bibliographical  works  for  the  students 
of  English.     Yale,  1901.] 

IV.     Periodicals,  etc. 

Anglia,  Halle,  1874  ff.;  Archiv  fiir  das  Studium  der  neueren  Sprachen  und 
Litteraturen,  Berlin,  1879  ff.;  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  Deutschen 
Sprache  und   Litteratur,  Halle,  1874  ff.;    Englische   Studien,   Leipzig, 


Chapter  XIX  535 

1877  ff.;  Journal  of  Germanic  Philology,  Bloomington,  Indiana,  1897  ff.; 
Literaturblatt  fiir  Germanische  und  Romanische  Philologie,  Leipzig, 
1879  ff.;  Modern  Language  Notes,  Baltimore,  1886  ff.;  Modern  Lan- 
guage Quarterly,  1897;  Modern  Language  Review,  Cambridge,  1905  ff. ; 
Modern  Quarterly  of  Language  and  Literature,  1 898-1 904;  Modern 
Philology,  Chicago,  1903  ff.;  Philological  Society,  Transactions,  1842  ff.; 
Studies  and  Notes  in  Philology  and  Literature  (Harvard),  Boston, 
1892  ff.;  Yale  Studies  in  English,  1898  ff. 


I 


I 


I 


4th  to  6th  cent 

tions. 
373-463  St.  Patrick. 
449     English  Invasion  of  Britain. 
c  470-525      Boethius. 
5i6?-57o?     Gildas. 
516?     Battle  of  Mount  Badon. 
537      Battle   of    Camlan  "  in   which 

Arthur  and  Medraut  fell." 
563     St.  Columba  at  lona. 
570-632     Mohammed. 
590-604     Papacy  of  St.  Gregory  the 

Great. 
597       St.      Augustine's    mission     to 

Kent. 
628?-69o     Benedict  Biscop. 
630?-679     St.   Etheldreda    (founded 

monastic  house  at  Ely,  673). 
633     The  Koran  collected. 
635     St.  Aidan  sets  forth  for  Lindis- 

farne  (d.  653). 
64o?-709     Aldhelm. 
664     Synod  of  Whitby. 

668  Coming  of  abp.  Theodore  (d. 
690)  and  abbot  Hadrian  to 
Canterbury. 

669  St.  Wilfrid  as  bp.  at  York. 
673-735     Bede. 

679-800     Historia    Brittonunt     (rev. 

by  Nennius). 
684     St.    Cuthbert,    bp.    of     Lindis- 

farne  (d.  687). 
c  700     Lindisfarne  Gospels. 
701     Establishment   of   the   festival 

of  the  exaltation  of  the  cross. 
732     Egbert  abp.  of  York  (d.  766). 
735-804     Alcuin. 
742-814     Charles     the     Great     (at 

Roncevaux,  778). 
781-809     Caliphate  of    Haroun    ar- 

Rashid. 
787     Danish  irruptions  begin. 


Table  of  Dates 


North  Sea  Migra-      c  825     The  Heliand. 


849-901?     Alfred  (in  Rome,  853). 

fl  850     John  Scotus  Erigena. 

fi  881     Otfried. 

886-9 1 1  Normans  besiege  Paris  and 
take  Rouen. 

908  ?-984  St.  Aethelwold  (bishop 
of  Winchester,  963). 

918?  Death  of  Aethelflaed,  the  lady 
of  Mercia. 

924-988  St.  Dunstan  (abbot  of  Glas- 
tonbury, c.  945). 

937      Battle  of  Brunanburh. 

954-1012     Aelfeah  (St.  Alphege). 

991      Battle  of  Mai  don. 

994?-io35      Canute  (king,  1017). 

/?  1000     Byrhtferth. 

1000— 1 100     Chanson  de  Roland. 

■fi  1006     Aelfric. 

1043  King  Edward  the  Confessor 
(d.  1066). 

1066     Battle  of  Hastings. 

1070  Lanfranc,  abp.  of  Canterbury 
(d.   1089). 

1070     Hereward's  rising  at  Ely. 

^1071-1115     Peter  the  Hermit. 

1079-1142     Abelard. 

1086     Domesday  Survey  ended. 

1087-1100.     King  William  Rufus. 

1091-1153     Bernard  of  Clairvaux. 

1093  St.  Anselm,  abp.  of  Canter- 
bury (d.  1 109). 

12th  cent.  ff.     Miracle  plays. 

1100-1135      King  Henry  I. 

1 100     Henry's  Charter  of  Liberties. 

1100-1164     Peter  Lombard. 

1 100  ?-i  1 54     Geoffrey  of  Monmouth. 

1 1 19     P.  de  Thaun's  Comput. 

c  1 130     P.  de  Thaun's  Bestiaire. 

1 13 5-1 154     King  Stephen. 

1 135-1204     Maimonides. 

f,  1141-1143     Robert  de  Retines. 


537 


538 


Table  of  Dates 


1 1 43  ?     Death  of  William  of  Malmes- 
bury. 

1 146?-! 220?     Giraldus    Cambrensis. 

1 147     Death  of  Robert  Earl  of  Glou- 
cester. 

c    1 148     Gaimar's   History. 

1 126?-!  1 98     Averroes. 

c  1150     Nibelungenlied. 

1154-1189     King  Henry  II. 

1157-1217     Alexander  Neckam. 

■fi  1160-1180     Chretien  de  Troyes. 

1 162     St.    Thomas   a    Becket,    abp. 
of  Canterbury  (murdered,  11 70). 

/?  1165  ff.     Benoit  de  Ste.  More. 

e  1 167     Canute  Song. 

^1169-1175     Peter  Comestor. 

/?  1170     Wace. 

ii75?-i234?     Michael  Scot. 

1179-1241      Snorri  Sturlason. 

■p,  1 180     Marie  de  France. 

1 180     Death  of  John  of  Salisbury. 

c  1185     Hue  de  Roteland. 

1189-1199     King  Richard  Coeur  de 
Lion. 

■p,  1 189-1220     Hartmann  v.  Aue. 

/?  1190     Joseph  of  Exeter. 

^1190     Nigel  Wireker. 

1 193-1280     Albertus  Magnus. 

1 198     Death  of  Richard  Fitz-Neale. 

1199-1216     King  John. 

/Z  1200     Layamon. 

H  1200     Walter  Map. 

fl  1200?     Orm. 

fl  1200     Saxo  Grammaticus. 

1200-1225     Acren  Riwle. 

fi  1203-12 17     Wolfram  von  Eschen- 
bach. 

1204     Loss  of  French  provinces. 

■fl  1206     Walther  von  der  Vogelweide 

c  1213     Villehardouin ;    Conquete  de 
Constantinople. 

fi  1210     Gottfried  von  Strassburg. 

I2i4?-i294     Roger  Bacon. 

12 15     Great  Charter. 

1216-1272     King  Henry  III. 

c  1220     Owl  and  Nightingale. 

<:  1220     Que  ste  del  St.  Graal. 

c  1240     Grand  St.  Graal. 

122 1     Dominicans  at  Oxford. 

c  1250      The    Flemish   recension   of 
Roman  de  Renart. 

1221-1274     St.  Bonaventura, 


1224     Franciscans    at    Oxford    and 

Cambridge. 
c  1 22 6-1 2 74     St.  Thomas  Aquinas. 

1 230?-! 294?     Brunetto    Latini. 
fi  123 0-1250     Bartholomaeus  Angli- 
cus. 

i23o?-i298     Jacobus  a  Voragine. 

1236  Marriage  of  Henry  to  Eleanor 
of  Provence. 

c  1237  Romance  of  the  Rose,  Will- 
iam of  Lorris,  continued  (c  1278) 
by  John  Clopinel  of  Meun. 

c  1240     Thomas  de  Hales;  LuveRon. 

1245     Death  of  Alexander  of  Hales. 

1247     Death  of  Odo  of  Cheriton. 

c  1250     Dies  Irae. 

c  1250     Genesis  and  Exodus. 

1253     Death  of  Robert  Grosseteste. 

1259     Death  of  Matthew  Paris. 

i265?-i3o8?     Joannes  Scotus  Duns. 

1265-1321     Dante. 

1264-5  Battles  of  Lewes  and  Eve- 
sham, Simon  de  Montfort. 

1268     Death  of  Henry  de  Bracton. 

fl  1270-1287      Guido  delle  Colonne. 

1272-1307     King    Edward   I. 

i272?-i3o5     Sir  William  Wallace. 

1274     Dominicans  at  Cambridge. 

fi  1 2 88-1 33 8  Robert  Mannyng  of 
Brunne. 

i29o?-i349  Richard  Rolle  of  Ham- 
pole. 

1290-1349     Thomas   Bradwardine. 

c  1300     Robert  of  Gloucester. 

c  1300     Cursor  Mundi. 

1300-1325     Auchinleck  MS. 

i300?-i352?     Laurence  Minot. 

1304-1374     Petrarch. 

1305-1377     The  Popes  at  Avignon. 

1307-1327      King  Edward  II. 

c  13 10     Lyrics  of  the  Harleian  MS. 

13 13-1375      Boccaccio. 

13 14     Battle  of  Bannockburn. 

13 16 ?-i395     John  Barbour. 

1326-1412     John  Trevisa. 

1327-1377     King  Edward  III. 

1325-1408     John  Gower. 

c   1337-1410?     Froissart. 

i34o?-i4oo     Geoffrey  Chaucer. 

c  1340     Tale  of  Gamelyn. 

1346     Battle  of  Crecy. 

1349,  1361,  1369.     The  Black  Death. 


J 


Table  of  Dates  539 

1349?     Death  of  William  Ockham.  1372     Death  of  (?)  John  Mandeville. 

c  1350     The  Alliterative  Revival.  1377-1399     King  Richard  II. 

135 1     Statute   of   Labourers.  1378     Beginningof  the  Great  Schism. 
fl  1350     The  author  of  Sir  Gawayne      1379-147 1     Thomas  a  Kempis. 

and  the  Grene  Knight,  etc.  1381     Peasants'  Revolt:  Wat  Tyler, 
1362  ff.     Piers  Plowman.  John  Ball. 

1363-1429     JeanGerson.  1384     Death  of  John  Wyclif. 
1364     Death  of  Ranulf  Higden. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES 


IFf.  after  an  entry  implies  that   there   are  references  to  the  same  subject 
on  at  least  two  immediately  succeeding  pages.] 


Abbo  of  Fleury  133,  134,  145 

Abel,  33,  82 

Abelard,  204,  212,  240 

Abgarus,  legend  of ,  132 

Abingdon, 1 2 5.  See  also  under  Aethel- 

wold. 
Abingdon    Chronicle    121,    122,    124. 

See  also  under  Chronicle 
Abraham,  50 

Acca,  Bede's  letters  to,  88 
Acircius,  Aldhelm's  letter  to,  84 
Acts   of   the   Apostles,    Graeco-Latin 

copy  at  Oxford,  79 
Adam,  148,  394;  Book  of,  147 

du  Petit  Pont,  205 

Spencer,  332 

Adam  Bell  334 

Adamnan  (625?-704),  90,  106 

Adelard  or  Aethelard  of  Bath  (r2th 

century),  De Eodem et  Diverso,  etc., 

169 
Ado  of  Vienne,  89 
Adoptionist  controversy,  93 
Adrianus  and  Ritheus,  243 
Adso,  Libellus  de  Antichristo,  383 
Aelfheah  (St.  Alphege),  (954-1012), 

120,  140,  154,  170 
Aelfhere,  153 
Aelfnoth,  160 
Aelfric  (fl.  1006),  95,  106,  118  124  ff., 

144,  147.  151.  157.  158,  164,  166, 

242,  246412 
Aelfw'me  (Alboin),  in  Widsith  38, 
in     The     Battle     of      Maldon, 

160 
Aene^d,  287,  316,  317 
Aeschere,  in  Beowulf,  25 

in  The  Battle  of  Maldon,  160 

Aesop,  117,  396 
Aethelard.     See  Adelard 
Aethelbriht,  laws  of,  108 
Aethelflaed,  the  Lady  of  Mercia  (d. 

918),  122,  156,  158 
Aethelmaer,  138,  158 
Aethelney,  98 
Aethelred,  the  ealdorman,  115 

king  of  Mercia,    11,    124,    140, 


142,  143,  160 


Aethelstan   (895-940),  68,   119,   136, 

151-  339 

abbot  of  Abingdon,  121 

Aethelweard,    the    ealdorman,    132, 

135-  136 
Aethelweard,     the     chronicler       (d. 

998?),  492 
Aethelwold  or  Ethelwold,  St.  (908  ?- 

984),  14,  17,  125,  126,    129,    131, 

134,  138,  141,  163 
Aethelwold  in  Havelok,  338,  392 
Aethelwulf,  115 
Aethilwald  or  Ethelbald,  86 
JE]>red's  ring,  12 
Agape,  St.,  82 
Agatha,  St.,  82 
Agnellus,  friar,  225 
Agnes,  St.,  82 

Aidan  (d.  651),  46,  90,  133,  163 
Ailred    or     Ethelred     of     Rievaulx 

(1109  ?-ii66),  178,  255,  376 
Alain    de    Lille    (11 14-1203),    Anti- 

Claudiantis  andDePlanctu  Naturae, 

214,  256 
Alban,  St.,  Passion  of,  90 
Alberic,  master,  204 
Albert  of  York,  92 
Albertus  Magnus  (i  193-1280),  222, 

233. 234. 
Albin,  St.,  in  Layamon,  260 
Albinus  of  Canterbury,  91 
Alboin,  in  Widsith,  39 
Alcestis,  358 
Alchfrith,  12 
Alcimus  Avitus,  84 
Alcuin  or  Ealhwine  (735-804),  5,  64, 

87,  92  ff.,  98,  130,  134,  161,  169 
Aldfrith,  84,  86 
Aldhelm  (640?-709),   16,   18,  66,  67, 

80  ff.,  90,  92,  95,  100,  113,  256 
Aldred,  146 
Alexander  III,  king,  315 

of  Blois,  185 

of  Hales  (d.  1245),  221  ff.,  228, 

230 

of  Lincoln,  174,  187,  286 

the  Great,  Wars  and  Romances 

of,    149,   164,   188,  311,  317,  324, 


541 


542 


Index  of  Names 


Alexander  the  Great,  cont. 

341  ff.,  372,  373,  382.    See  also  AK- 

saunder 
Alexander,  Sir  Gilbert  Hay's,  324 

to  Aristotle,  Letter  from,  149 

Alexius,  St.,  327,  398 

Alfred  (849-901?),  21,  93,  96,  97flf., 

120,  125,   126,   137,   141,   150,  154, 

159,  166,   219,   266,   405,   425   flE.; 

Falconry,  attributed  to,  117 

aetheling,  154,  418 

of  Beverley,  290 

Alfred,  Proverbs  of,  243 

Ali,  28,  30 

Alisaunder,  King,  320,  341,  343,  344, 

3  53 

Alliterative  revival,  324 

Almaigne,  Song  against  the  King  of, 
412 

Alphabet,  Irish  and  Roman,  13 

Alphege,  St.     See  Aelfheah 

Alphere,  in  Waltharius,  35 

Alius  prosaior,  77 

Amadas  and  Ydoine,  317 

Sir,  327 

Ambrose,  64,  84,  85 

Ambrosius  Aurelianus,  Aurelius  Am- 
brosius  (G.  of  M.),  Embreis  Guletic 
(Nennius),  Emrys  Wledig  in  Welsh 
lit.,  74,  27s,  298 

Amis  and  Amiloun  350 

Amlethus  (Hamlet)  in  Saxo  Gram- 
mat  icus,  9.  See  also  under  Hamlet 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  39 

Amos,  hermit,  82 

An  Bispel,  252,  253 

Anatolia    St.,  82,83 

Ancren  Riwle,  246,  255,  259 

'AySfjsov  Kai  MarOaiov,  Ttpd^Et?,    59 

Andrew  of  Wyntoun,  Orygynale 
Cronykil,  371 

• St.,    59,    127.     See   also  under 

Andreas 

Andreas,  55  ff.,  63,  158 

Aneirin  (fl.  603?),  276,  277 

Anlaf,  121,  159,  339 

Cuaran,  319 

Annie  of  Lochryan,  334 

Anselm,  St.  (1033-1109),  17,  141, 
165,  168,  170,  180,  181,  206,  241, 
247.  249.  253,  256,  259,  396 

Antony,  Life  of,  Athanasius's,  83 

Antwerp,  Plantin  Museum  at,  79 

Apollonius,  hermit,  82 

Apollonius  of  Tyre,  149,  167 

Apuleius  (Herbarium,  150 

Aquinas,  St.  Thomas,  222,  233  fE 

Arabian  learning,  169 

Arabian  Nights,  318 

Arator,  84 

Architecture,  Anglo-Norman,  172, 
246,  247 

Architrenius,  or  Arch-Mourner,  of 
Jean  de  Hauteville,  214 

Archytas  311 


Ardens,  Radulphus,  245 

Argante,  in  Layamon's  Brut,  261, 
262,  295 

Aristotle  and  Aristotelianism,  169, 
205,  207,  222,  226,  228,  233,  235, 
236;  Ethics,  226,  236;  History  of 
Animals,  221;  Letter  from,  Alexan- 
der to,  149;  Metaphysics,  223  ;0r- 
ganon,  207,  232;  Physics,  223,  226, 
234,  235;  Politics,  236 

Arley,  Regis,  Worcester,  260 

Arminius,  23 

Armorican  Bretons,  284 

Arnold,  Matthew,  on  Celtic  Litera- 
ture, 276,  279,  282,  305 

Thomas,  on  Henry  of  Hunting- 
don, 186 

Arthour  and  Merlin,  298,  353,  446, 

Arthur  and  the  Arthurian  legend,  77, 
147,  164,  175,  187,  188,  196,  220, 
247,  261  ff.,  270  ff.,  310,  316,  318, 
331,  344,  346  ff.,  364,  375,  380, 
391,  392.  See  also  under  the 
separate  titles  of  the  Arthurian 
romances,  Wace,  Layamon,  etc. 

Arthur,  Death  of,  211.  See  also  under 
Morte 

Arundel,  the  horse  in  Sir  Beves,  325 

Arviragus,  in  Layamon's  Brut,  263 

^5  you  Like  It,  332 

Ascapart  the  giant.  Sir  Beves,  326,383. 

Ascolot,  Maid  of,  348 

Asser  (d.  909?),  89  ff.,  in,  116 

Assisi  222,  233,  406 

Assmann,  137 

Assumptio  Mariae,  257 

Asthall,  139 

Athanasius,  82,  83 

Athelston,  319 

ASols,  King  of  the  Svear,  27  fiE. 

Atlamdl,  in  the  Edda,  23 

Attila,  22,  35,  37 

Auchinleck  MS.,  Edinburgh,  413 

Audax,  grammarian,  84 

Audoin,  in  Widsith,  38 

Aue.      See  Hartmann  von 

Augusel,  in  Arthurian  legend,  28 

Augustine,  St.,  of  Kent  (d.  604),  i,  5, 
14,  45,  46,  78,  79,  392 

St.,  of  Hippo,  103,  113,  129,  132 

137,  139,  140,  236,  248,  256,  260, 
396 

Aulay,  319 

Aungerville,  Sir  Richard,  336 

Aurelius,  Caninus,  74. 

Austin,  St.,  in  Layamon,  260 

Avalon,  Isle  of,  270,  293,  295,  302, 
346 

Averroists,  the,  236 

Avicenna,  227, 

Avignon,  235,  236,  239 

Avitus  of  Vienne,  51 

Avowing  of  Arthur,  348 

Awntyrs  [Adventures]  of  Arthure  at 
the  Terne  Wathelyne,  ^24,  347 


Index  of  Names 


543 


Ayenbite  of  Inwyt,    394  flf.,  434.  443- 

444 
Azarias,  52 
Azo  of  Bologna,  200 

Babel,  Tower  of,  in  Alfred's  Boethius, 

III 
Babylas,  martyr,  82 
Babylon,  Sultan  of,  336 
Baby's  Debut,  321 
Bacon,  Roger  (i2i4?-i294),   221   ff., 

226  flf. 
Bacon,    Friar,    and   Friar  Bungay, 

Greene,    233;  Famous  Historic  of 

233 
Baconthorpe,    John    (d.    1346),    the 

"Resolute  Doctor,"  236 
Badon,  Mount,  73,  273  flf. 
Baghdad,  169 
Balclutha,  305 
Baldwin,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

215,  216 

Sir,  348 

Balin  and  Balan,  299 

Baliol,  Edward,  399 

Ball,  John,  412 

Balsham,  Hugo  de,  227 

Bangor,  antiphonary  hymns  of,  72 

Banncckbum,  398,  413 

Barbour,  401' 

Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  318 

Barnes,  W.,  266 

Barontus,  St.,  of  Pistoja,  95 

Bartholomew  (fi.  1230-1250),  204 

Basil,  St.,  82,  83,  85,    13s,  137 

Basilissa,  martyr,  82 

Bath  {The  Ruin),  44 

Bayard,  in  Four  Sons  of  Aymon,  325 

Be  Domes  Daege,   142,   160  flf.,  244, 

252 
Beaduhild,  in  Deor,  39 
Beagno)',  owner  of  the  Thames  runic 

sword,  12 
Beauty  of  the  World,  327 
Beaw  or  Beo,  son  of  Scyld  (Sceldwea), 

31 

Bee,  monastic  school  at,  169;  "Geof- 
frey Arthur's"  book  at,   188 

Becket  St.,  Thomas  a,  192,  205,  206, 
212,  224,  378,  380 

Bedam,  Historia  post,  193 

Bede  or  Baeda  (673-735),  5,  10, 
(runes),  14,  21,  22,  47  flf. (on  Caed- 
mon);  58,  60,  63,  65,  67,  (Death 
Song),  73,  75,  77,  78,  87  flf.,  98 ;  102, 
106,  III,  117  (Alfred's  fi^rf^);  106, 
121,  123,  129,  131  flf.,   144,  160,  163, 

176   flf.,    181    flf.,    187   flf.,    189,    231, 

249,  260,  284,  380,  387,    391,  392, 

425- 
Bedivere.     See  Bedwyr 
Bedwyr    or    Bedivere,    Arthurian 

knight,  277,  282,  283,  288 
Bek,  Thomas,  of  Castleford,  374,  377 
Belisante,  in  Amis  and  Amiloun,  320 


Bellcndcn,  Major,  311 
Belshazzar,  in  Cleanness,  360 
Benedict,  St.,  81,  116 

Biscop,  abbot  of  Wearmouth 

(628?-69o),  5,  78,  93,  98,  167 

of  Peterborough  (d.  1193),   178, 

192,  193 

Benedictbeuem,  monastery  in  Ba- 
varia, 211 

Benet,  St.,  Rule  of,  16,  255 

Benoit  de  Ste.  More,  311,  340 

Beowa,  30,  31 

Beowanham,  30 

\Beowulf,  I  flf.;  runes  in,  11,  12;  22  flf., 
^  37.  38,  45.  47.  59.  63.  69,  109,  127, 
137,  151,  158,  308,  340 

Berengarius,  1 70 

Bernard,   in  Specula  Stultorum,   214 

of  Chartres,  204,  208 

St.,  205,  245,  256,  396 

Bernlak   de   Hautdesert,   the   Green 

Knight.     See  Sir  Gawayne 
Beroul  (c.  11 50),  303,  345 
Beryn,  Tale  of,  332,  ?,i3 
Bestiaries,   Old  English,   65;  Middle 

English,  251,  252,  266,  325 
Bethulia,  157,  158 
Beulan,  teacher  of  Nennius,  77 
Beverley.     See  St.  John  of 
Beves,  Sir,  of  Hamtoun,  242,  313,  319, 

324  ft'.,  337,  339,  340 
Bewcastle  Column,  Cumberland,   12 
Bible,  Codex  Amiatinus  at  Florence, 

79;   Codex    Argenteus  at   Upsala, 

17;  Metz,  98;  St.  Denis  Bible,  98 
Birkabeyn,  in  Havelok,  337 
Biscop.     See  Benedict 
Black  Book  of  Carmarthen,  270,  276, 

277,  278 
Black  Death,  the  414 
Blackwater  river  {Battle  of  Maldon), 

159 
Blaiman,  Irish  tale,  326 
Blancheflour.     See  Flores  and  B. 
Bleking,  in  Ohthere's  voyage,  103 
Blickling  Homilies,  126,  142 
Bloet,  Robert,  bp.  of  Lincoln,  184 
Blois.     See  Alexander,  and  Peter,  of 
Boccaccio,  221,  237,  402;  B.'s  Vio- 

lante,   in   Olympia,    360;   Filocolo, 

318;  Decameron,  318 
Bodel,  Jean  Chanson  de  Saisnes,  3 10, 

336 
Boethius,    De    Consolatwne   Philoso- 

phiae,  236,  396;  Alfred's  version, 

100,  109  flf.,  118 
Boisil,  163 
Bologna,  schools  of,  207,   213,   221, 

222, 
Bonaventura,  121,  170    229 
Boniface,  St.,  81,  86,  95 
Borron,  Robert  de,  298,  301 
Borrow,  George    306 
Bosham.     See  Herbert  of 
Bosworth,  J.,  101 


544 


Index  of  Names 


BoSvarr  Biarki,  30 
Bouterwek,    K.,  162 
Bracton.     See  Henry  of 
Bradwardine,  Thomas,  Doctor  profun- 
dus (i290?-i349),  236 
Brakelond.     See  Jocelin  of 
Brandes,  G.,  ix 
Brandl,  A.,  ix 
Branwen,  daughter  of  Llyr, 
Braune,  W.,  ix 

Breca,  in  Beowulf,  25;  in  Widsith,  38 
Brendan,  St.,  378 
Bretons,  Geste  des,  376 
Breton  lays,  327 

saints,  75 

Brewer,  John  Sherren,  224  if.,  230, 

233. 
Bricriu's  Feast,  330,  365 
Bridlington,      Augustinian      priory, 

384 

Brigham,  Nicholas,  371 

Brihtwold,  bishop,  47 

Bj-iseida,  341.  See  also  under  Chau- 
cer, Troilus 

Britain,  Book  of,  77  ff. 

Brittonuin,  Historia.     See  Nennius 

Broceliande,  fountain  of,  in  Ywain 
and  Gawain,  347 

Brooke,  Stopford  A.,  x,  2  ff.,  52,  53, 
56,  64 

Bruce,  Alexander,  384 

-  Robert,  384,  393 

Bruce's  Anglo-Saxon  Version  of  the 

Book  of  Psalms,  117 
Bruce,  Barbour's,  401 
Brunanburh,  Battle  of ,  152,  156,  166, 

185,  319 
Brunellus,     the     donkey     of     Nigel 

Wireker,  213 
Brunne.     See  Robert  Manny ng  of 
Brunnewake  in  Kestevene,  384 
Brussels,  cross  at,  63 
Briit,  261,  284,  286,  Layamon'S; 

248,   260  ff.,    294,    419,    444, 

Tysilio's,    261;    Wace's,  260, 

391 
Brutus  legend,    188,    194,   260,   286, 

341,  375 
Bucephalus,  342 
Buddha,  318 

Buelt,  Builth  or  Buallt,  274 
Bungay,  Friar,  233 

Thomas    de    (in    Suffolk)    (fl. 

1290),  233 

Bunyan,    John,    Christian    and    the 

Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death, 

64 
Burana   Carmina,  211 
Burleigh,  Walter  (1275-1345  ?),  236J 
Burns,  Robert,  323 
Burton,  Annals  of ,  198 
Bury     St.      Edmunds,     Benedictine 

Abbey  of,  236.     See  also  St.  Ed- 

mundsbury 
Bury.     See  Richard  of 


151. 
445; 
261, 


Busirane,  castle  of,  329 
Busiris,  in  Boethius,  1 1 1 
Byrhtferth  (fl.  1000),  145 
Byrhtnoth,  in  The  Battle  of  Maldon, 

45.   120,  151,  157,  158,  340 
Byrhtwold,  152 
Byron,  306 

Cabal  the  hound,  in  Nennius,  274 

Cadoc,  St.,  291 

Cador,  in  Layamon,  295;  in  Emare, 

346 
Cadwalader,   in    Layamon,    260;  in, 

Mannyng,  392 
Caedmon   (fl.  670),  15,  33,  45  ff.,   61 

69,  91,  98,  106,  131,  157,  427,  428 
Caer,  Rigor,  279 
Caer  Sidi,  279 
Caerleon,   or  Caerlleon,   or  Carleon, 

upon  Usk, 219, 273, 289 
Caesar,  Julius,  13,  82,  89,   102,  207, 

219,  382. 
Cain,  7,2, 
Grendel's  ancestor,  in  Beowulf, 

24 
Calais,    siege   of,   Minot's  poem  on, 

399-  400 
Caliburn,  Arthur's  sword, 
Caligula,  in  Orosius,  105 
Cambrensis.     See  Giraldus 
Cambriae,  Annates,  273,  275 
Cambridge,    Dominicans   and 

ciscans  at,  222 

miser  parson  in  Mannyng,   386 

— —  Platonists,  vii. 

professorship  of  "  Anglo-Saxon" 

at,  427 

university,  204 


295 


Fran- 


Camden,  William,  48,  426 

Camel  river,  290 

Camelford  (Camlan),  battle  of,  275, 
278,  29s 

Camelot,  364 

Camlan.     See  Camelford 

Campbell's  Popular  Tales  of  the  West 
Highlands,  328 

Canon  John    (fl.  1329),  34 

Canterbury.     See  Gervase  of 

archbishopric  of,  55 

coming   of   Theodore  and  Ha- 
drian to,  77 

Franciscans  at,  224 

sack  of  by  Danes,  140,  154 

school  of,  87,  96 

school  of  handwriting  at,  13 


CanterburyChronicle  atChTistChxirch, 
120 

Tales,  etc.     See  Chaucer  • 

Canute,  122,  140,  376 
Canute  Song,  The,  243 
Caradoc  or  Caradog  of  Llancarvan, 


2,  291 


Carados,  in  ContedelGraal,  366 

Carannog,  St.,  291 

Carlisle,  in  Arthurian  romance. 


348 


Index  of  Names 


545 


Carlyle's  Past  and  Present,  195 
Carmarthen,  Roman  walls  at,  219 

See  Black  Book  of 

Carmelites,  the,  236 

Carolingian  romances,  336,  344.     See 

also  under  Charlemagne 
Carrie,  262 

Carthage  in  Alfred's  Orosius,  105 
Carthusians,  the,  210 
Casere,  in  Widsith,  38 
Cassiodorus,  22,  236 
Cassodorien.in  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion, 


342 


Castle  of  Love,  See  Grosseteste 

Cato,  Distichs  of,  131 

Cattraeth,  277 

Catullus,  404 

Cavall,  the  hound,  in  Kulhwch  and 
Olwen,  275 

Caxton,  273,  317 

Cearbhall,    Irish  king,    319 

Cecilia,  St.,  82 

Cedd,  St.,  91 

Celia,  in  As  You  Like  It,  332 

Celtic  influence  on  English  litera- 
ture, 304  ff. 

Ceolfrid,  abbot,  60,  91 

Cerdic,  262 

Cerne,  abbey  of,  in  Dorsetshire,  and 
Book  of,  95,  128,  132,  138,  166 

Chad,  St.  (d.  672),  91 

Chalon-sur-Saone,  37 

Chambers,  Cyclopaedia  of  English 
literature,  ix 

Chansons  de  geste,  310,  324 

Charlemagne  in  romance,  188,  313, 
315.  316,  336,  340,  381 

Charles  Emile,  231  fE 

II,  king  of  England,  314 

the  Bald,  97,  98 

the    Great,    9^      ., .      •.>-.      For 

romances,  see  under  Charlemagne 
and  Carolingian 

Charm  for  Barren  Land,  70 

Charms,  Old  English,  44 

Chart,  near  Leeds  in  Kent,  394 

Charter,  the  Great,  167,  171,  193 

Chartres,  school  of,  203  flf.,  240 

Chateau  d' Amour.     See  Grosseteste 

Chattuarii,  the  29 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey  (i34o?-i4oo),  17, 
109,  171,  189,  196,  214,  236,  300, 
305  ff.,    311,  314,  320,  321,'^  325, 

332,  333.  344.  354.  355.  371.  388 

ff.,  396,  409,  410,  427,  429,  432  ff., 

440  ff. 
Canterbury  Tales,  17,  214,  236, 

318,  332,  393 

Man  of  Law's  Tale  201,  325 

Nonne  Prcstes  Tale,  214,  300 

Parson's  Tale,  The,  396 

Sir  Thopas,  308,  312,  313,  314, 


Chaucerian  school,  358,  373 

Chestre,  Thomas,  329 

Chcvelcre     Assigne     (Swan-Knight), 

324  . 
Chevalier  de  Coucy,  334 
Child,  J.,  Ballads,  329 
Childhood  of  Jesus,  411 
Childric,  in  Layamon,  263 
Chionia,  St.,  82 
Chohilaicus  (Chlochilaicus)  or  Huig- 

laucus,  29 
w-j-Ghr^tien  de  Troyes,   292,   298,   299, 

301,  303,  310  ff.,  317,333 

—  Chevalier      de      la      Charrette, 
300 

—  Cligbs,  318 

—  Conte  del  Graal,  281,  299,  301, 
316,  327,  366 

—  Erec,  277,  281,  304 
Le  CJtevalier  au  Lion  (Yvain), 


321,323,324,329,333,355, 
408  ff. 
—  Squire's  Tale,    3,  9 

3S 


329 


Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,   The,   196, 


Yeoman's  Tale,  The,  332 
Hous  of  Fame,  189 
Troilus  and  Criseyde,  371 


281,  304,  310,  311,  316 
Tristan  (ascribed  to  C.  de  T.), 

2,03 

Christ.     See  Cynewulf 

Christ,  On  Serving,  252.  See  also 
The  Passion  of  our  Lord,  250,  251 ; 
On  Lofsong  of  ure  Louerde,  On  Ure- 
isun  of  ure  Louerde,  and  Wohung 
of  ure  Lauerd,  259 

Christabel,  163,  420 

Christians,  Duty  of,  253 

Christina,  St.,  82,  83 

Christopher,  The,  English  warship, 
399  -^.. 

Chronicle,  The  Old  English,  68,-^8,. 
99,  .ij,     tt8  ff.,  151  ff.,  i6o7"~i66, 
179,  185,  243,  2G2,  ■.,0.  ^53,    393, 
412,  418.      See  also    unaei    Win- 
chester, Peterborough,  etc. 

Chronicon  Boguphali  Episcopi,  35 

Chrysanthus,  martyr,  82 

Church,  Dean,  on  St.  Anselm,  182 

Cicero,  84,  no,  205,  207 

Cinric,  263 

Cistercians,  the,  210 

Clare.     See  Osbert  de 

Clarendon,  Constitutions  of,  276 

Clariodus,  324 

Claudian,  75 

Claudio,  in  Measure  for  Measure,  2 

Cleanness,  357  ff.,  383 

Cleges,  Sir,  357 

Clement  IV,  229 

of  Rome,  82,  130;  Recognitions 

of,  83 

Cleopatra,  105 

Clericus  andPuella,  dialogue  between, 
408 

Cloten,  in  Layamon,  263 

Clovesho,  synod  of,  55 


546 


Index  of  Names 


Clovis,  22,  23 

Clust,  son  of  Clustveinad,  283 

Clustveinad,  283 

Cobbett,  W.,  413 

Cockayne,  O.,  116,  149,  150 

Coggeshall.     See  Ralph  of 

Cokaygne.      See  Land  of 

Colbrand,  in  Guy  of  Warwick,  337  ff., 

383 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  164,  421 
Colgrim,  in  Layamon,  263 
Columba,  St.    (521-597),  46,  77 
Columban,  St.  (543-615),  72 
Columbus,  232 
Commodus,  105 
Comput.     See  Thaun,  P.  de 
Confessio  Amantis.     See  Gower 
Constance,  346 
Constantina,  St.,  82 
Constantine,  Emperor,  61 

in  Layamon,  295 

of  Devon  and  Cornwall,  74 

Constantius,  90 

Chlorus,  37 

Conyngton.     See  Richard  de 

Cook,  A.  S.,  X.,  55,  63,  65 

Coran,  The,  169 

Cordova,  in  Alfred's  Orosius,  105 

Corfesgeat,  152 

Corineus,  in  Layamon,  263 

Corippus,  84 

Cormac,  Irish  scholar  (831-903),  273 

Cornelius  Nepos,  217 

Corvey.      See  John  of 

Cosmas,  martyr,  82 

Cotton.     See  Bartholomew  de 

Courthope,    W.    J.,    Hist,    of    Eng. 

Poetry,  266 
Coutances,     Andr6  de,  Romans  des 

Franceis,  262 
Craik,  G.,  viii 
Crashaw.  R,,  258 
'"^yke,    near   York,   monastery   at, 

95 
Crecy,  battle  of,  399,  401 
Crist  and  Satan,  53,  54 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  234 
Cronica,  duo  Anglica,  121 
Cross,  festivals  and  legends  of  the,  6 1 , 

62,     148;     Aelfric's    homily,     130. 

See  also  Dream  of_  the  Rood 
Croyland.      See  Felix  of 

monastery  of,  98 

Crusade,  first  in  Wm.  of  Malmesbury, 

Cuchulinn,  in  Fled  Brier  end  (Bricriii's 

Feast),  330,  365  _ 
Cuirass.     See  Lorica 
Cuneburga,  abbess,  87 
Cuneglasus,  king, 74 
Curson    of    Kedleston,    cardinal    (d. 

12 18),      221 
Cursor   Mundi,     148,     381    ff.,    388, 

446 
Curtin,  Hero  Tales  of  Ireland,  326 


Cuthberta,  abbot  of  Wearmouth  and 

Jarrow,  67,  87 
St.  of  Lindisfame,  70,  88,  90,  91, 

94,  129,  130,  162 
Cuthwin,  61,  78,  87 
Cymbeline,  in  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth, 

189 
Cynewulf,  42,  45,  54  ff.,  147,  148,  363 
Cynewulf's  Fata  Apostolorum,  57  ff.; 

runes  in,  12 
Crist,  54,  57,  58,  62,  63,  69,  70 

runes  in,  12;  Cook's  edn.,  65 
Elene,  55  ff.,  60,  62,  68,  69,  148, 

158;    runes  in,  12 

Juliana,  57,  58;  runes  in,  12 


Cynewulf,  bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  54 

king,  in  O.E.  Chronicle,  118 

Cynulf  of  Clovesho,  55 
Cyprianus,  84 
Cyrus,  he  Grand,  311 

Dacia,  in  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  287 
Daeghrefn,  in  Beowulf,  26,  30 
Dame  Siriz,  408,  409 
Damian,  martyr,  82 
Dan  Michel  of  Northgate,  Kent,  394 
ff.,  447 

Robert  of  Mai  ton,  391 

Daniel,  82;  Story  of,  by  Hilarius,  212 

bishop  of  Winchester,  91 

of  Morley,  169 

Daniel,   Old  English  poem,    50,    52; 

runes  in,  11 
Dante,  47,  109,  221,  222,  252,  257, 

300. 405 
Dares,  195 
Daria,  martyr,  82 
Darius,  342 
David,  82,  102,  148,  162 

St.  (d.  601),  74. 

Davy,  r\.C^\-n.   '     ',  394,  396 

Davyd  ap  Gwilym,  395 

Dawkyn,    in    Tournament   of   Toten- 

ham,  409 
Death,  252 

D^bats,  Old  French,  267 
Defoe,  D.,  284 
Degare,  Sir,  346 
Degrevant,  Sir,  322 
Delgan,  in  Layamon,  262 
Demetrias,  St.,  82 
Dear,    Complaint   of,    4,    21    ff.,    40, 

417 
Deutschbein,  M.,  Englische  Sagenge- 

schichte,  326 
Devizes.     See  Richard  of 
Dibdin's  Reminiscences,  239 
Diceto.      See  Ralph  of 
Dictys,  189 
Diderot,  232 
Didot  Percival,  in  the  Graal  legend,, 

301 
Dietrich,  F.,  54,  136 

von  Bern,  40 

Diocletian,  344 


I 


Index  of  Names 


547 


Dionysius  the  Areopagi*e,  226 

Disctplina  Clericalis,  408 

Diu   Krdne,   by   Heinrich   von   dem 

Tiirlin,  299 
Domesday  Book,  436 
Domesday,  Fifteen  Signs  before,  398 
Dominic,  St.,  222,  379 
Dominicans,  222,  397 
Domitian,  251 
Don  Gay f eras,  336 
Don  Quixote,  336 
Don,  the  children  of,  280 
Donatus,  grammars  of,  126,  130 
Doomsday,  252 
Dorothea,  82,  83 
Douglas  tragedy,  the,  334 
Dracontius,  84 

Drayton,  M.,   189,  321   {Nymphidia) 
Dream,  of  the  Rood  (?  Cynewulf),  46, 

57  ff,  62,  63,     69,     147;    Ruthwell 

Cross,  12 
Druids,  13 

Dryburgh  abbey,  372 
Dryden,  J.,  315 
Drystan,  son  of  Tallwch  (Tristram), 

^303 

Drythelm,  vision  of,  90,  95 

Dubricius,  archbishop  of  the  "  City  of 

Legions,"  387 
Duglas  river,  battle  of,  387 
Dunbar,  W.,  325 
Dunnere,  in  The    Battle  of  Maldon, 

160 
Duns   Scotus,    John,    Doctor  subtilis 

i265?-i3o8),  222,  233  ff. 
Dunstable,  Annals  of,  197 
Duristan,    bt.    (924-9? 

130,  140,  145,  166,  167,  169,  270, 
Durham.      See  Simeon  of 

Poem  on  the  city  of ,  162 

Durham,    Book    of    (or   Lindisfarne 

Gospels),  14 
Ritual,  runes  in,  12 


Eadberg,  164 
Eadfrith,  164 
Eadgils,  Beowulf  and  Widsith,  26,  27, 

28,39 
Eadmer  (d.  1124?),  180  If.,  186,  191 
Eadric,  139 

Eadwine,  in  Widsith,  39 
Eaha,  in  Finnsburh,  34 
Eahfrid,  81 

Ealhhild,  in  Widsith,  37,  38,  39 
Eanmund,  in  Beoivulf,  26,  28 
Eanred's  ring,  1 1 
Earle,  J.,  115,  156 
Easter  controversy,  81,  90,  91,  92 
Easthealon,  139 
Ebionite  heresy   249 
Eccleston,  T.  de,  225 
Ecgfrith,  10 
Ecglaf,  160 
Ecgtheow,  Beowulf's  father,  24 


Edda,  8,  23,  71 

Eddius  Stephanus,  94 

Edern,  son  of  Xud,  283 

Edgar,  King,  121,  125,  133,  135,  152 

ff-,  340 
Edmund  Ironside,  30,  155,  376 

of  Abingdon  (d.   1240),  222 

son  of  Edward  the  Elder,   152 

St.,  133 

Edward  I,    391,  392,  413;  Elegy  on, 

413 
II,    382,  357,  398;  Evil  Times 

of,  413 

III,    237,   316,   325,   377,   384, 


394, 399  ff- 

—  aetheling,  155 
of  Carnarvon,  413 

—  son  of  Edgar,  152,  153 

—  St.,  396 

—  the   Confessor,    122,    155,    165, 
200,  376,  437 

the  Elder,  151 


Edwin,  monk,  437 

of  Northumbria,  90 

Egbert,  bp.  of  Lindisfarne,  95 

or  Ecgberth  of  York,  5,  88,  91, 

92,  96 
Eger,  Sir,  324. 
Egil  Skallagrimsson,  9,  68 
Eglumour  of  Artois,  Sir,  352, 
Ehangwen,  Arthur's  hall,  282 
Eilhart  von  Oberge,  303 
Einenkel,  E.,  130 
Einhart's  Life  of  Charles  the  Great, 

99 

Ekkehard  of  St.  Gall,  35,  36 
"/Ibing,  in  Orosius,  104 

Elbodugus.     See  Elfod 

Eleanor  of  Provence,  wife  of  Henry 
III,  215,  403 

wife  of  Henry  II,  293 

Elfledes  Boc,  121.     See  also  Aethel- 
flaed 

Elfod,  or  Elbodugus,  bishop  of  Ban- 
gor (d.  809),  77,  78,  373 

Elias  of  Jerusalem,  117 

Elijah,  74,  82 

Elipandus  of  Toledo,  94 

Elisabeth  of  Schonau,  St.,  254 

Elisha'  82 

Elizabeth,  queen,  109,  355,  426 

Elizabethan  lyrists,  404 

Ely,  monaster}^ of ,  17,  126,  155 

Ely.     See  Thomas  of 

Emare,  345,  346,  352 

Eneas,  Roman  d',  317 

E)icyclopedie,  L',  230 

Enid,  312 

Enoch,  Book  of,  147 

Eormenric,  in  Beowulf  and  Widsith, 
29,  38ff. 

Epictetus,  318 

Epternach,  92 

Erasmus,  406 

Erbin.      See  Geraint 


548 


Index  of  Names 


Erce,  "the  mother  of  the  earth,"  44 

Erec  (Geraint),  Sir,  316 

Erigena,  John  Scotus  (fl.  850),  170 

Erkenwald,  372,  373 

Ermyn,  in  Bcves,  339 

Ernley,  or  Arley  Regis,   Worcester, 

266 
Eschenbach.     See  Wolfram  von 
Ethelbald.     See  Aethilwald 
Ethelburga,  St.,  90 
Etheldreda,  St.,  90 
Ethelwold.     See  Aethelwold 
Ethelwulf's  poem  on  Crayke,  95 
Eucharist,  Aelfric  on  the,  129,    140, 

141 ;  Lanfranc  on  the,  170 
Euclid,  169 
Eugenia,  St.,  82 
Eulalia,  St.,  82 
Eurydice,  328,  346 
Eusebius,  73,  83 

■ (Hwaetberct),  66,  86,  87 

Eustace,  Count,  122 

legend  of  St.,  325,  351 

Eustochium,  St.,  82 

Eutropius,  90 

Evans,  Gwenogvryn,  280 

Sebastian,  286,  289,  301 

Eve,  148 

Evesham,  battle  of,  375,  376 

monastery  of,  98 

or  Worcester  Chronicle,  120,  122 

Evesham.     See  Walter  of 

Exeter  Book,  the,  12,  38,  43,  53,  57, 

58,  66  ff.,  167,  418 
Exodus  (Old  English),  51  ff.,  64,  69 
Eynsham,  abbey  of,   138,    140,    147; 

Aelfric's    letters,     126,     138,     139; 

synod  of,  142,  143 
Ezekiel,  loi 


Fabliaux,  175,  408 

Faerie  Qiieene.     See  Spenser 

Falsehood  of  Man  (Bi  manna  lease), 

68 
Faricius,  80 
Farmap,  priest  of  Harewood,  Leeds, 

146 
Fastidius,  "a  British  bishop,"  72 
Fates  of  Men  (Bi  manna  wyrdum),  67 
Father's  Instruction,  A.,  68,  243,  405 
Fecamp,  monks  of,  224 
Felice,  in  Guy  of  Warwick,  338  fi. 
Felix,  82,  83 
■ of  Croyland,  Life  of  St.  Guthlac, 

64,  94,  145 

■ of  Urgel,  94 

Fergusson,  R.,  323 

Ferumbras,  Sir,  321,  324,  326,  336, 

337 
Fierabras,  316 
Fikenhild,  in  Horn,  338 
Finn,    in    Beowulf,    Finnsburh    and 

Widsith,    25,  34,  37 
Finnsburh,  33,  52 


Firdusi,  326 

Fitela,  in  Beowulf,  25,  29 

Fitz-hamon,  Robert,  284 

Fitz-neale,  Richard  (d.  1198),  192 

Fleury,  religious  revival  of,  125. 
See  also  Abbo  of 

Florence  of  Worcester,  99,  100,  178  ff. 

Florus  of  Lyons,  89 

Fled  Bricrend  (the  feast  of  Bricriu), 
365 

Fletcher,  R.  H.,  TJte  Arthurian  Ma- 
terial in  the  Chronicles,  285 

Florentine,  in  The  Seven  Sages,  344 

Flores  and  Blanche flotir,  318,  337, 
343,  344 

Floripas,  in  Sir  Ferumbras,  336,  337 

Foliot,  Gilbert  (d.  1187),  192 

Forster,   129 

Forster,  Gregory,  159 

Four  Sons  of  Aymon,  325 

Foxe,  John,  137 

Francesca,  405 

Francis,  St.,  222,  223,  379 

Franciscans,  the,  222 

Francorum,  Gesta  Regunt,  29.  See 
also  Gregory  of  Tours 

Franks  casket,  13;  Franks  in  Beo- 
wulf, etc.,  28,  29,  35,  37 

Fraternity  of  Vagabonds,  vii 

Frederick  H,  emperor,  221 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  181,  190,  219,  221 

Freyr  (Old  Norse  alphabet),  10 

Friars  Minor,  226,  232 

Frigidianus,  bishop,   116 

Frische  Haff,  the,  104 

Frisians,  the,  in  Beowulf,  27  £E.,  35 

Froda,  in  Beowulf,  27,  28 

Froissart,  236,  400 

FroUo,    262 

Fr65i  (Frotho  IV),  28 

Frotho  L  31 

Froumond,  1 1 1 

Furnivall,  F.  J.,  ix.,  384 

Fursey,  the  Irish  hermit,  vision  of,  in 
Bede,  91,  95 


Gabriel,  the  angel,  127 
Gaddesden.     See  John  of 
Gaimar,  Geoifrey  (d.   1140),  Estorie 
des  Engles,  etc.,  115,  189,  262,  293 
Galahad,  in  Arthurian  legend,  300 
Galen,  213,  214 
Galleroun,    in    Awntyrs   of    Arthure, 

347 
Gamelyn,  Tale  of,  322,  332,  333,  410 
Gareth,  in  Malory,  329 
Garter,  order  of  the,  366 
Garulf,  in  Finnsburh,  34 
Gaufridus  Arturus,  284 
Gaul,  women  of,  167 
Gautar,  the,  in  Old  Norse  literature, 

29 
Gautier,  archbp.  of  Sens,  211 
de  Doulens,  366 


Index  of  Names 


549 


Gawain,  in  Arthurian  legend,  270, 
289  (Walgainus),  290,  298,  299, 
313,  316,  317,  319,  329  ff.,  344. 
347  ff.,  375.  See  also  Sir  Gawayne, 
below 

Gawain,  Wedding  of,  329,  348 

Gawayne,  Sir,  and  the  Grene  Knight, 
330.  ii'^^  357.  362  ff.,  368  ff.,  372, 
373.  423 

Geat,  in  Deor,  40 

Geatas,  the,  in  Beowulf,  27  ff. 

Generydes,  324 

Genesis,  A  and  B,  Old  English,  50  ff., 
69 

and    Exodus,    Middle    English, 

250,  421,  432,  446 

Geoffrey  de  Vinsauf  (fl.  1200),  {Art 
of  Poetry),  214 

of  Monmouth  (iioo?-ii54),  75, 

78,  175,  176,  186  ff.,  194,  261,  263 
272  ff.,  278,  280,  285  ff.,  293,  295 
ff.,  346,  374,  376,  391.  392 

the  cripple,   in   Tale  of  Beryn, 


332 
George,  St.,  343 
Geraint  (Sir  Erec),  304,  316 
Gerald     of     Wales.     See     Geraldus 

Cambrensis 
Geraldines  of  Wales,  the,  215 
Gerbert  of  Aurillac,  232 
Gereint  or  Geraint,  son  of  Erbin,  in 

The  Black  Book,  278,  281,  283 
Germanus,  St.,  of  Auxerre,  78,  90 
Gervase    of    Canterbury    (fl.    1188), 

192,  194 
of  Tilbury  (fl.   12 11),  Otia  Im- 

perialia,  192,  195,  213 
Gervasius,  83 

Gesta    Romanorum,     149,    408,    410 
Gibbon,  E.,  183,  272 
Gibicho,  in  Waltharius,  35 
Gifica  (Gibicho),  in  Widsith,  37 
Gifts  of  Men  (Bi  monna  craeftum), 

67 
Gilbert  de  la  Porr^e,  204,  205 
of  Sempringham  (io83?-ii89), 

254,  407 
Gilbertine  order,  384 
Gildas  (5i6?-57o?),  5,  72  ff.,  78,  79, 

90,  274,  291,  391 
Gilla  Coemgin,  78 
Gillus.     See  Gildas 
Giraldus  Cambrensis  (ii46?-i220?), 

177,   189,   191,    195,    196,    209    ff., 

215  ff.,  225,  270,  325 
Glanville.     See  Ranulf  de 
Glastonbury,  166,  182,  220,  270,  291, 

300.  348 
Glq^tonia,  abbey  of,  in  Life  of  Gildas, 

270 
Glewlwyd  Gavaelvawr  or  Glewlwyd 

of  the  j\Iighty  Grasp,  one   of  Ar- 
thur's porters,  278 
Gloucester  Chronicle.     See  Robert  of 

Gloucester 


Gloucester,  or  South  English  Legen- 
dary.     See  Legendary 

Robert,  earl  of,  173,  184,  284, 

286 

Gnomic  Verses,  O.  E.,  242 
Godard,  in  Havelok,  337 
Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  cycle  of,  324 

of    Cambrai    and    Winchester, 

212 
Godiva,  Lady,  406 
Gododin,  Aneirin,  276 
Godric,  in  Battle  of  Maldon,  160 

St.     (1065 ?-i  170),  419;  Cantus 

Beati  Godrici,  244 

Godrich,  household  of,  in  Havelok, 
337. 338 

Godwin,  122,  154 

Golagros  and  Gawain,  347,  372,  373 

Goldburgh,  in /fau€'/ofe,  337,  338,  392 

Golden  Legend,  the,  61,  148,  383 

Golias,  bishop,  and  Goliardic  Poems, 
196,  210,  211,  407 

Goliath,  in  Cursor  Mundi,  383 

Gollancz,  L,  64,  67 

Gorlois,  in  Arthurian  legend,  287 

Gotaland,  29,  30 

Gotar  (Gautoi),  30 

Goths,  the,  23,  38 

Gottfried  von  Strassburg,  297,  304, 
352 

Gower,  John,  212,  227,  309,  311,  313, 
371,  435;  Confessio  Amantis,  149, 
318,  324,  387,  393 

Gowther,  Sir,  347,  350 

Graelent,  329 

Grafton,  Richard  (d.  1572),  189 

Grail,  the  Holy,  in  Arthurian  ro- 
mance, 290,  299,  300  ff. ;  The  Quest, 
2  11,  301,  302;  Quete  del  St.  Graal, 
attributed  to  Map,  301 

Grave,  The,  163 

Graves,  Stanzas  of  the,  270,  277,  278 

Gray,  T.,  306 

Great  North  Road,  197 

Green,  J.  R.,  217,  223 

Green  Knight.     See  Sir  Gawayne 

Greene's  Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bun- 
gay ^  233 

Gregorian  Gospels  at  Corpus  Christi 
College,  Cambridge,  80 

Gregory  IX.,  225 

Nazianzen,  82 

of  Tours,  29,  74,  130 

The  Great,  58,  67,  S3,  90,  94,  95, 

106,  114,  130,  249,  256,  388,  396; 
Alfred's  version  of  Ciira  Pastoralis, 
10 r,  102;  Werferth's  version  of  the 
Dialogues,  116;  and  the  English 
boy  slaves,  260,  392.  424,  425 

Gregory,  St.,  Treiitals  of,  348 

Grein,  C.  W.  M.,  ix,  53,  loi 

Grendel,  in  Beowulf,  2,  11,  24,  25,  31, 
127 

Grendles  mere,  30 

Grettir,  30 


550 


Index  of  Names 


Grettis  Saga,  30,  31 

Griffin,  maker  of  Arthur's  spear,  in 
Layamon,  294 

Grim,  in  Havelok,  338,  339 

Grimbald  of  St.  Bertini,  Flanders, 
abbot  of  Winchester,  98,  10 1 

Grimm,  Jacob,  61,  428 

Grimsby,   in  Havelok,  338,  392,  406 

Grosseteste,  Robert  (d.  1253),  225, 
226  ff.,  232,  233,  382,  394;  Cha- 
teau d' Amour,  226,  383 

Guala,  cardinal,  265 

Guest,  E.  A.,  271 

Lady   Charlotte    (Mabinogion), 

274, 280, 306 

GuilDOux,  Carolingian  heroine,  338 

Guido  de  Colonna,  189 

Guildford.     See  Nicholas  of 

Guillaume  de  Palerme,  2,12,.  See  Wil- 
liam of  P. 

Guinevere,  or  Guenever,    290,    291, 

295.  300.  347.  348,  365 
Guingelot,  Wade's  boat,  242 
Guinnion,  castle  of,  273 
Guisburn,  priory  of,  201 
Guisnes,  298 
Gundicarius  (Gundaharius),  king  of 

the  Burgundians,  36 
Guntharius,    in    Waltharius    (Wald- 

here),  35 
Guthere,    in  Waldhere  and  Widsith, 
^  36,  39 
Guthlac,  St.,  in  Old  English,  56,  57, 

63;  life  of,  94,  95,  144.     See  Felix 

of  Croyland 
Guthlaf,  in  Beowulf  and  Finnsburh, 

34 

Guy  of  Warwick,  Sir,  242,  314,  326, 

327,  336  ff. 
Gwalchmei — Gawain,   in  the   Welsh 

Triads  and  in  the  Mabinogion,  298 
Gwestad,  283 

Gwevyl,  son  of  Gwestad,  283 
Gwynn,  son  of  Nud,  282 
Gyngalyn,  in  Libeaus  Desconus,  347 

Habbie,  Simson,  piper  of  Kilbarchan, 

323 
Haddeby,  in  the  Baltic,  104 
Hades,  king  of,  in  Preideu  Annwvn, 

279 
Hadrian,  abbot,  5,  79  ff.,  85,  90 
Hadrian  IV   (Nicholas  Breakspear), 

205 
Haethcyn,  in  Beowulf,  27 
Hagall  (Old  Norse  alphabet),  10 
Hagno,  in  Waldhere,  and  Waltharius, 

35.  36 
Hagena,    in    Waldhere  and  Widsith, 

36 
Hakluyt,  Richard,  105 
Hales,  J.  W.,  Folia  Litteraria,  242 
Hales.     See  Alexander  of 
Hales.     See  Thomas  de 
Halfdan,  28 


Halga,  in  Beowulf,  28 

Halgoland,  104 

Halidon  Hill,  399 

Hali  Meidenhad,  254,  260,  404 

"Hal  wes  thu  folde,  fira  modor,"  3 

Hama,  in  Beowulf  and  Widsith,  29,  39 

Hamauorum,  pagus,  38 

Hamlet,  17,  326 

Handlyng  Synne.     See  Mannyng 

Hardy,  T.,  267 

Harewood,  Leeds,  Rushworth  Gospels, 

written  by  a  priest  of,  146 
Harold,  165,  166 

Godwinsson,  310 

the  Fair-haired,  29 

Harrowing  of  Hell.     See  also  53,  54, 

279 
Hartmann,  M.,  113 

von  Aue,  298,  311 

Harun-ar-Rashid,  169 

Hastings,  battle  of,  123,  165  fif.,  174 

Hattuariorum,  pagus,  38 

Hdvajndl,  68 

Havelok    the   Dane,     242,    308,    318 

(Lay  of),  319,  320,  337,  339,  340, 

343.  351.  392.  402,  407,  410,  440 
Hawkyn  and  Dawkyn  and  Tomkyn, 

in    The    Turnantent   of   Totenham, 

409 
Hay,    Sir  Gilbert,  324 
Haymo,  130 
Headda,  or  Hedda,  85 
Healfdene,  in  Beowulf,  24,  28,  34,  35 
Heardred  in  Beowulf,  2  7 
Hearne,T.,  158 
Heathobeardan,  the,  in  Beowulf,  27, 

28 
Hedwig,  254 
Helena,  St.,  finder  of  the  Cross,  6, 

61,  147,  148 
Helfta,  in  Saxony,  convent,  254 
HelgakviSa      HiorvarSssonar,      Old 

Norse  poem,  23 
Hundingsbana    II,    Old    Norse 

poem,  23 
Helgi,  son  of  Halfdan,  28 
Heliand,  51,  52 
Helias  of  Jerusalem,  150 
Helie  de  Borron,  303 
Hell,  Eleven  Pains  of,  252 
Hemingburgh.     See  Walter  of 
Hendyng,  Proverbs  of,  243,  405 
Hengest,  in  Finnsburh,  34,35.     See 

also  115,  273 
Henry  I,  167,  171,  174,  180,  247,  285, 

310,  375 

II,  173,  174,   186,  190  ff.,    195, 

200,  205,  208,  209,  212,  219,  220, 
225,  265,  270,  286,  302,  342,  376, 

444.  445  • 

Ill,  200,  204,  215,  259,  265,  376, 

411 

Henry  IV,  359 

— —  of  Bracton  or  Bratton  (d.  1268), 
200 


Index  of  Names 


551 


Henry  of  Huntingdon  (io84?-ii55), 
176,  177,  179,  184  ff.,  188,  190,  193, 
212,  242,  286,  291,  375,  376 

of  Saltrey  (fl.  1150),  212 

Heoden,  (HeSinn),  in  Deor,  40,  41 

Heodeningas,  the,  in  Deor,  40,  41 

Heorogar,  in  Beowulf,  28 

Heorot,  Hrothgaishall,  in  Beowulf,  24 

Heoroweard,  in  Beowulf,  28 

Heorrenda,  minstrel,  in  Deor,  40 

Herbarium,  Old  English,  149 

Herbert,  G.,  257 

Herebeald,  in  Beowulf,  27 

Heremod,  in  Beowulf,  25,29 

Here  Prophecy,  242 

Hereward  (fi.  1070-1071),  122,  319 
407 

Hergest.     See  Red  Book  of 

Heriricus,  in  Waltliarius,  35 

Hermenegild,  St.,  116 

Hervarar  Saga,  38 

Hesiod,  85 

Hetel  (HeSinn),  in  Ktidrun,  41 

HeSinn,  41 

Hettner,  H.,  viii 

Hetware  (Chattuarii),  in  Beowulf, 
28,  29 

HeSurodys,  in  Sir  Orfeo,  346 

Hiarrandi,  father  of  HeSinn,  30 

HiaSningar,  41 

Hickes,  G.  (1642-1715),  34,  163, 
427 

Hilarion,  82 

Hilarius,  212 

Hilda  or  Hild,  St.  (614-680),  abbess 
of    Streoneshalh,  Whitby,  46,  47, 

50.  90 
Hildebrandslied,  the,  39 
Hildeburh,  in  Beowulf,  34 
Hildegard,  St.,  of  Bingen,  354 
Hildilid,  or  Hildelitha,  St.,  abbess  of 

Barking,  82 
Hildr,  daughter  of  Hogni,  41 
Hiltgund,   in    Waltliarius   and   Wal- 

dhere,  35  ff. 
HiorvarSr,  brother-in-law  of  Hrolfr, 

28 
Hippomedon.      See  Ipomedon 
Hisperica  Famina,  76,  77,  78 
Hnaef,  in  Beowulf  and  Widsith,  26, 

34.  35.  37 
Hoefublausn  of  Egill  Skallagrimsson, 

68 
Hoel,  king  of  Brittany,  288,  289 
Hogni,  41 
Holinshed,  R.,  189 
Holkot,  Robert,  Moralitates,  237 
Holm,  in  Norway,  199 
Holpfernes,  157 
Holy  Roman  Empire,  354 
Holywood.     See  Johannes  de  Sacro 

Bosco 
Homer,  85,  189 
Homilies,  Old  English  (see  also  Aefric, 

Wulfstan,  etc.),  242 


Homilies,  Middle  English,  245 
Honorius   Augustodiensis,     Elucida- 

riuin  of,  383 
Horace,  84,  214,  245 
Horant,  in  Kudrun,  41 
Horn,  Danish  viking,  319 
Horn  Childe,  289,  314,  324 
Horn,    King,  242,  313,  319,  324  fi., 

333- 337  ff-.  344 
Horn,  The  Gest  of  King,  318 
Horologium,  Old  English,  150 
Horsa,  115 

Horstmann,  C,  377,  379 
Hospitallers,  the,  210 
Hothbroddus,  28 
Hoveden,  John  (d.  1275),  215 
Hoveden.     See  Roger  of 
Hrethel,  in  Beowulf,  27 
Hrethric,  in  Beowulf,  28 
Hr6arr  (Roe),  son  of  Half  dan,  28 
Hroerekr  (Roricus),  28 
Hr61fr,  28 

Kraki,  28,  30 

Hrdlfs  Saga  Kraka,  28,  30 
Hrothgar,   in  Beowulf  and  Widsith, 

22,  24,  25,  26,  28,  32,  38 
Hrothwulf,  in  Beowulf  and  Widsith, 

25,  28,  34,  38 
Huchoun  of  the  Awle  Ryale,  372 
Hue  de  Rotelande  (c.  1185),  211,  300, 

317.     ^ee  aXso  I pom.edon 
Hueil  or  Huel,  king  of  Scotland,  291 
Hugo  de  St.  Victor,    253,  257,  260, 

396 
Hugo,  Victor,  310 
Hunferth  (Unferth),  king's  "orator,  " 

in  Beowulf,  24 
Huns,  the,  37,  38 
Huntingdon.     See  Henry  of 
Huon  of  Bordeaux,  325 
Hupe,  383 

Husbandman,  Song  of  the,  413 
Husband' s  Message,  4,  42 ;  runes  in, 

13 
Hwaetberct.     See  Eusebius 
Hwon    holy   chireche    is    under    uote, 

251 
Hygd,  in  Beowtdf,  26,  27 
Hygelac,  in  Beoividf,  26,  27,  28,  29, 

32,  45 
HyndlulioS,  Old  Norse  poem,  25 


Ider,  331 

Igerna,  in  Arthurian  legend,  288 

Ignatius,  Epistles  of,    rendering    by 

Grosseteste,  226 
Ilchester,  228 
Iliad,  326 
Illtyd,  St.,  St.    Iltut  or  Iltutus    (fl. 

520)  of  Lantwit  Major,  Wales,  73, 

74,  77 
Ilmington,  139 
Imina,  in  Bede,  10 
In  Diebus  Dominicis,  252 


552 


Index  of  Names 


Ine,  laws  of,  107,  108 

Ingeld,  in  Beowulf  and  Widsith,  27, 

28,  38 
Ingialdr,  28 
Innocent  III,  214 

IV,  223 

Iona,33,  46 

Ipomedon,   Hue  de   Rotelande,   211, 

300.  3^3'  317.  318,  319,  320,  324 
Ireland,  English  students  resort  to, 

79 
Irenaeus,  Aelfric's  homily  on,  130 
Irene,  St.,  82 
Isaac,  50,  136 

Isabella,  in  Measure  for  Measure,  i 
Iseult,    302    ff.,  332,   345.      See   also 

Tristram 
Isidore   of   Seville,    78,   8^,    89,    249, 

383 

St.,  etymologies  of,  131 

Isle  of  Birds,  379 

of  Man,  in  Horn,  338 

Ismnbras,  Sir,  322,  326,  351 


Jacobean  lyrists,  404 

Jacobus     a     Voragine     (1230-1298), 

61,  148,  383 
James  VI.  Art  of  Poesie,  324 

St.,  T30,  257 

G.  P.  R..319 

Jamnes,  legend  of,  149 
Janus,  temple  of,  105 
Jarrow,  5,  80,  86,  87,  92,  94,  98 
Jason,   or  Joshua,   in  Parliament  of 

the  Three  Ages,  272 
Jean  de  Hauteville    (fl.  1184),  214 

de  Meun,  102 

Jebb,  Samuel,  230 

Jeremiah,  82 

Jerome,    St.,    73,    78,    83,    114,    129, 

^33^  210, 396 
Jerusalem,  Battle  of,  397 
Jerusalem  in  the  legend  of  the  Cross, 

148 
Jesus,  Orm's  treatment  of  the  name 

of,    250.      See    also    Childhood    of, 

and  under  Christ 
Jews,    persecutions   of,    195;   Jewish 

legends,  72,  147  ;  Jewry  at  Oxford, 

224 
Joannes  de  Garlandia  (fl.  1230),  214, 

215 
Jocelm  of  Brakelond  (fl.  1200),  195 
Johannes  de  Sacro  Bosco  (d.   1252), 

or  John  of  Holywood,  222 
John  Chrysostom,  171 

Basingstoke  (d.  1252),  226,  230 

de  Bromyarde,  Summa  Praedi- 

caniium,  410 

de  Cella,  197 

de  Tayster  or  Taxster  (d.  1265), 


John,  King,  194,  215,  220 
■ monk  of  Worcester,  180 


John,  of  Corvey,  Abbot  of  Aethelney, 

98,    lOI 

of  Doncaster,  399 

of  Guildford,  264 

of  Lindebergh,  383 

of    Salisbury    (d.    1180)     192, 

195,  203  flf.,  224,  237,  240 

of  Trokelowe  (fl.  1330),  201 

of  Worcester,  iSo 

passion   of,    by    Pseudo-Melito, 

83 

prior  of  Hexham  (fl.  1180),  178 

St.,  Evangelist,  82,  220,  395 

St.,  of  Beverley,  90 

St.,  the  Baptist,  82,  139 

XXII,  Pope,  235 

Jonah,   in  Pearl  and  Patience,   360, 

363 
Jonsson,  Arngrim,  34 
Jordanes,  38 
Joseph,  82 

of  Exeter  (fl.  1 190),  Flos  Regum 

Arthurus  (Antiocheis),  216 

•of  Arimathaea,  147,  301,  302 


i 


Josephus   249 

Josian,  in  Beves,  340,  341 

Judas,  379 

Jude,  St.,  39 

^Judith  53,  54,  85,    137,  151,    156  ff., 

166,  255 
Judith,  daughter  of  Charles  the  Bald, 

9.7 

Julian,  in  Aldhelm's  treatise  on  vir- 
ginity, 82 

Toledo,  84 

Juliana,  St.,  58,  254 

Julius  Valerius,  149 

Julleville,  L.  Petit  de,  ix 

Junilius,  84 

Jupiter,  in  Boethius,  in 

Jusserand,  J.  J.,  ix,  2 

Justina,  St.,  82 

Juvenal,  75,  84 

Juvencus,  84 


Kaermerdin,  295 

Kai  or  Kay,  Sir,  a  knight  of  Arthur, 

277,  282,  283,  289,  347,  348 
Karlamagnus  Saga,  315 
Karlemeyne  and  the  Duzeper,   251 
Kainorin",  St.,  Life  of,  254 
Keats,  J.,     306 
Kempis,  Thomas  a,  no 
Kenelm,  St.,  375,  379 
Kent,  laws  of  109 
Kentish  Chronicle,  123,  124.      See  also 

under  Chronicle 

Sermons,  Old,  246 

Kenulph,  bishop  of  Winchester,  138 

Kestevene,  384 

Kilbarchan,  323 

Kilwardby,  Robert  (d.   1279),  233 

Kilyd,  282 


Index  of  Names 


553 


I 


Kinbelin,  in  Layamon,  263 

Kirkham,  monastery  of,  381 
Kirkstall.      See  Hugh  of 
Kittredge,  G.  L.,  ix 
Knight  of  Curtesy,  334 

of  the  Burning  Pestle,  326 

of  the  Red  Shield,  328 


I 


Kogel,  R.,  23 

Kolbing,  ix 

Krebs,  H.,  116 

Kudrun,  Austrian  poem,  41 

Kulhwch  and  Olwen,  274,  278  £f. 

Kymry,  early  poetry  of,  276 

Kyndylan,  hall  of,  305 


Labb^'s  Concilia,  211 

Lactantius,  64,  84 

Lady  of  the  Fountain,  281,  304 

Lai  le  Freine.     See  Marie  de  France 

Lambwell,  Sir,  329 

Lamentation  of  Souls,  398 

Lancelot,  262,  290,  296,  300,  301,  303, 
349,  406;  prose  romance,  293,  300, 
301  ;  Lancelot  du  Lac,  211 

Land  of  Cokaygne,  408 

Lanferth  letter  of,  132 

Lanfranc,  (loos-FioSg),  141,  165, 
169,  170,  247 

Langland,  325.  See  also  Piers  Plow- 
man 

Langtoft.     See  Peter  of 

Langres,  37 

Langton,  Stephen,  Archbishop  (d. 
1228),  222 

Lantwit,  Major,  73 

Lanval,  329 

Laon,  monks  of,  277 

Lar,  161 

Larminie,  Mr.,  328 

Lathacan,  Laidcenn  or  Loding,  Irish 
prince,  75 

Laudine,  in,  Ywain  and  Gawain,  347 

Launfal — Landavall,   329 

Launfal,  A  files,  Thos.  Chestre,  329 

Sir,  313,  324,  328,  329,  334,  346 

Lawrence,  bishop  of  Durham,  212 

Laws,  Old  English,  143.  See  also 
the  chapter  on  Alfred,  107  fT. 

Layamon  (fl.  1200),  151,  154,  189,  242 
247,  260  ff.,  293,  294,  309,  319,  320, 
325,  376,  419,  422,  440.  445 

Lay  Folks'  Alass  Book,  394 

Lay  ton,  in  Strype's  Ecclesiastical 
Aletnorials,  235 

Lazarus,  Raising  of,  by  Hilarius,  212 

Lear  or  Leir,  in  the  Bruts  and  Chron- 
icles, 189,  261,  263,  375.  See  also 
Llyr 

Leech-book,  The,  117,  149,  150 

Legendaries,  253,  374.  See  also  un- 
der various  saints 

Legendary,  South  English,  148,  374 
flf.,  379,  380 

Leicht,  A.,  113 


Leire,  Danish  royal  residence,  30 

Leland,  J.,  145 

Leo  IV.,  97 

Leofric  (d.  1072),  167 

Lepidus,  Consul  105 

Mutius,  105 

Lewes,  battle  of,  411 
Lewis,  "Monk"  319 

of  Bavaria,  235 

the  Pious,  51 

Leyden  riddle,  67 

Lioeaus  Desconus,  or  Sir  Libeaus,  or 

LibiusDisconius,  314,  316,  322,  329, 

348 
Liber  Monstrorum,  29 
Limber  Magna,  Lincolnshire,  383 
Lincoln  Castle  (Havelok),  392 
Lindelof,  146 
Lindisfarne,  5,  92,  95,  98 

Gospels,  The,  15,  80,  146 

L'Isle,  W.,   136 

Little's  Grey  Friars  at  Oxford,   232, 

233 
Llongborth   (supposed  to   be  Ports- 
mouth), 278 
Llud  and  Llevelys,  2  So 
Llwelyn,  Prince  of  Wales,  199 

ap  Gruflfud,  292 

Llyr,  280,  283.     See  also  Lear 
Llywarch  Hen  (496?-646)?,  276,  277, 

30s 

Llywelyn,  in  Mannyng,  392 

Lodge,  Thomas,  332 

Logres,  in  Arthurian  legend,  310 

Lollards,  the,  407,  414 

Lombard,  Peter,  Master  of  the  Sen- 
tences, 223,  231,  233  ff. 

Longfellow,  162 

Long  Life,  253 

Lorens,  frere,  395 

Lorica,  or  Cuirass,  75,  76 

Lot,  F.,  291 

Loth  and  Lot,  in  Arthurian  legend 
287,  364 

Lotos  Eaters,  417 

Louis  IX,  375,  395 

Lounsbury,  T.  R.,  x 

Luard,  H.  R.,  201,  227 

Lucan,  84 

Luces  de  Gast,  303 

Lucius,  in  Morte  Arthure,  348 

Lucy,  St.,  74,  397 

Liidwig  the  Pious,  Life  of,  by  Thegan, 

99 
Luke,  St.,  82 
Lul,  letter  from,  87 
Lumby,  J.  R.,  161 
Lumond,  sea  of,  in  Layamon,  262 
Luve  Ron,  Thomas  de  Hales,  259 
Lycanthropy,  belief  in,  352 
Lydgate,  317 
Lykewakes,  137 
Lvndsay,  Sir  David,  Squire  Meldrnm, 

324 
Lyonesse,  310 


554 


Index  of  Names 


Lyrics,  Harleian  (B.M.  2253),  402  ff., 
413,  422 


Mabel,  daughter  of  Robert  Fitz- 
hamon,  284 

Mahnnogion,  277,  280,  281,  283,  299, 
300,  306.     See  also  Lady  C.  Guest 

Macpherson,  J.,  305 

Madden,  F.,  299,  359,  364,  366 

Maeldune.      See  Mcddon,  Battle  of 

Maglocunus,  king  of  Anglesey,  74 

Magna  Charta,  On  the  King's  Break- 
ing his  Confirmation  of,  420 

Maitland,  F.  W.,  in  Traill's  Social 
England,  406 

Malchus,  St.,  82,  83,  212 

Malcolm  of  Scotland  (Malcolm  III), 

155 
Maldon,  The  Battle  of,  53,  120,  138, 

151,  158,  159,  166,  309 
Malkin   and   Jankin,    in    Lutel   Soth 

Sermun,  251 
Malmesbury    Abbey,    86,    177.     See 

William  of  Malmesbury 
Malory,  Sir  Thomas,  303,  327  fi.,  333, 

370.  372,  398,  399 
Mambres,  legend  of,  149 
Manawydan,  Son  of  Llyr,  280,  283 
Mandeville's  Travels,  342 
Manitius,  92 
Mannyng,  Robert,  of  Brunne  (Hand- 

lyng  Synne,  etc.),   226,   374,  390, 

381,  384  ff.,  400,  446 
Manorbier  Castle,  Wales,  216 
Manuscripts,  7 


_Mag^___WaIt^  (fi.  1200)  {De  Nugis 
CiirTaltum,,  Quete  del  St.  Graal,  etc.) 
174,    177,    192,    195,    196,   208  fi., 

293.  300.  301.  302 
Marathon,  105 
Marbod  of  Rheims,  258 
Marcellinus  Comes,  90 
Marcolf,  69 
Margam,  chronicle  of  the  abbey  of, 

284 
Margaret,  sister  of  Edward  aetheling, 

155 

Margaret,  St.,  Life  of,  254 

Marguerite,  in  Pearl,  358 

Marianus,  Scotus  (1028-1082  ?),   178 

Marie  de  France,  264,  265,  300,  305, 
313.  3?7.  328, 334 

Lai  le  Freine,  313,  334 

Lanval,  305 

Le  Chevrefeuille  (The  Honey- 
suckle), 305 

Mark  =  March  ab  Meirchion,  king  of 
Cornwall,  304,  305,  345 

Mark,  St.,  146 

Marriage  Feast,  parable  of,  in  Clean- 
ness, 360 

Marsh,  Adam,  228,  229 

Marsiglio  of  Padua,  235 

Martial,  212 


Martin,  St.,  82,   130 

Martinus,  Monk,  116 

Martyrology,  Bede's,  89 

The,  West  Saxon,  116,  117 

Mary,  the  Virgin,  71,  82,   127,   161, 
162,  244,  275,  331,  358,  381,  382, 
394,397.     See  also  the  following : 
Compassio      Mariae     and      As- 

sumptio  Mariae,  258 
Five   Joys   of  the    Virgin,    The, 

257 
Lofsong  of  ure  Lefdi,  258 
On    God    Ureisun   of   ure   Lefdi 
(A     Good     Orison     of     our 
Lady),  258 
Praaer  to  Our  Lady,  A,  258 
Prayer  to  the  Virgine,  258 
Sainte  Maria  Virgine,    244 
Song  to  the  Virgin,  A,  258 

Mary  of  Egypt,  St.,  Life  of,  145 

Mary  Magdalene,  St.,  381 

Math,  son  of  Mathonwy,  280 

Matilda,  queen  of  Henry  1,  167,  174 

Matthew  of  Westminster,  198 

St.,  59 

Matzner,  E.,  ix 

Maud,  empress,  184 

Maxen  Wledig,  Dream  of,  280 

Maxima,  abbess,  83 

Maximian,  emperor,  58 

Mead,  W.  E.  {Merlin),  298 

Medraut,  or  Modred,  or  Mordred,  276 

Meilyr,  story  of,  in  Giraldus  Cam- 
brensis,  190 

Melchior,  in  William  of  Palerne, 
352 

Melchizedek,  82 

Mellyagraunce,  of  Malory,  291 

Melrose,  chronicle  of,  193 

Melwas,  king  of  Somerset,  291 

Menologium,  160 

Merchant's  Second  Tale,  332,  333 

Mercia,  laws,  98;  Mercia,  55,  138 

Mercian  annals  (or  Chronicle  of  Aeth- 
elflaed),  120,  121.  See  also  under 
Aethelflaed,  the  Lady  of  Mercia 

Merlin,  prophecies  of,  187,  188,  214, 
286,  398;  in  the  Bruts,  261,  287,  295 
(Kaermedin,  in  Layamon) ;  in  the 
romances,  292,  298  {Vita  Merlini, 
Suite  de  Alerlin,  Myrdin,  in  Welsh 
tradition),  299,  300  (Robert  de 
Borron's) 

Mermedonians,  58 

Metre,  Bede's  tracts  on,  88, 

Michael,  St.,  148,  152,  339 

Middle  Ages,  the,  no,  169,  178,  207, 
309.  327.  2>2>2i'  334,  341,  406,  409, 
415 

Migne,  Patrologia,  206,  224,  277 

Miller,  T.,  trans,  of  Bede,  48,  106 

Milton,  J.,  47,  182,  413 

Milus,  St.,   117 

Mind  of  Man  (Bi  manna  mode),  68 

Minot,  Laurence,  323,  374,  393,  398 


Index  of  Names 


555 


Modred,  or    Mordred,  in    Arthurian 

legend,  261,  289  ff.,  295,  349 
Mohamadanism,  169 
Molidre,  J.  B.  P.,  414 
Mommsen,  Theodor,  72,  73,  75,  77 
Monmouth.     See  Geoffrey  of 
Monte  Cassino,  237 
Monte.     See  Robert  of 
Montefort.     See  Simon  de 
Moral  Ode.     See  Poema  Morale 
Morgam.  chronicle  of  the  abbey  of, 

284 
Morgan  le  Fay,  294,  365 
Morley,  H.,  viii,  52,  242 
Morley.     See  Daniel  of 
Morris,  R.,  127,  242 
Morte    Arthure    (English    rime    and 

alliterative  versions),  261, 300, 313, 

316,  323,  349,  37?: 
Moses,  148,  251 
Mucius,  consul,  105 
Mule  sans  Frein,  La,  330 
Alunchner  Brut,  262 
Myrgingas,  the,  in  Widsith,  38,  39 


Napier,  A.  S.,  58,  60,  138,  142,  147 
Narcissus,  82 

Nechtan,  king  of  the  Picts,  90 
Neckam,    Alexander    (1157-1217), 

214,  252,  264,  265,  410 
Neilson,  George,  Huchown  of  the  Awle 

Ryale,  316 
Neninivus,  82 
^^ennius  or  Nynniaw  (fl.  796),  34,  72, 

73.  75.  77.  78,  188,  272  ff.,  278,  285, 

286,  298,  375 
Neots,  St.,  Lives  of,  99,  145 
Nero,  251 
Nest,  "the  Helen  of  Wales,"  daughter 

of  Rhys  ap  Tewdwr,  215,  284 
Neville's  Cross,  battle  of,-  399 
Newburgh.      See  William  of 
Nicholas  of  Guilford  (fl.  1250),  cleric 

of  Portisham,  Dorset,  264 
Nicholas,  St.,  Image  of,  by  Hilarius, 

212 
Nicodemus,  Gospel  of,  147 
Niflheim,  69 

Nimrod,  in  Boethius,  1 1 1 
Nithhad,  in  Deor,  40 
Normans,   the  coming  of,   151,   165, 

167,  173 
North  Sea,  the,  35 
Northumbria,   5,  15,   54,  68,   93,  98, 

(literary  centre  of  western  Europe) 

339;    school    of    chroniclers,     179; 

dialect,  146 
Notker,  of  St.  Gall,  90,  109 
Nud,  father  of  G-^^ynn,  283 
Nutt,  A.,  281,  301,  302 


Ockham.     See  William  of 
'Octavian,  323 


Odin,  8 

Odo  of  Cheriton,  409 

St.,  169 

Odyssey,  327 

Offa,  in  Beowulf  and  Widsith,  29,  38 

in  Tlie  Battle  of  Maldon,  160; 

legend  of,  242 

laws  of,  108 

Offarum,  Vitae  Duorum,  38 

Ohthere  (fl.  880),  104 

Olaf,  319 

Old  German  poems,  162 

Old  Wives'  Tale,  327 

Olif  and  Landres,  3 1 5 

Olivier,  or  Oliver  in  Sir  Ferumbras 

(Fierabras),  316,  336 
Olwen,  daughter  of  Yspadaden  Pen 

Kawr,  282 
Olwen.     See  Kulhwch 
Onela,  in  Beowulf,  27,  29 
Ongentheow,  in  Beowulf  and  Widsith, 

27ff.,  38 
Ordericus  Vitalis  (1075-1 143  ?),  180, 

181, 189 
Ordlaf,  in  Finnsburh,  34 
Orestes  and  Pylades,  350 
Or/^o^«%_j_i3^  320,  328,  329,  333, 

334.-346 
Ofm^  (fl.  1200)  (and  Ormulum),  246 

ff.,  419,  420,  432  ff.,  441,  445,  446 
Orosius,  Paulus,  73,  84,  103  ff.,  265 
Orpheus  and  Eurydice,  328,  346;  in 

Boethius,  11 1 
Osbern  (fl.    1090),  monk  of  Canter- 
bury, 170 
Oslaf  (Ordlaf?),  in  Beowulf,  35 
Osney,  Abbey  of  and  Annals  of,  197, 

201,  285 
Ossianic  poems,  the,  305 
Oswald,   St.,   king  of  Northumbria, 

90,  117,  133,  163 

St.,  archbishop  of  York,  125 

Oswy,    Oswiu,    of  Northumbria,   13, 

425 

Otfried,  Old  High  German  poet,  130, 
322 

Ohthere  in  Beowulf,  etc.,  27,  28 

Otho  IV,  213 

Ottarr,  29 

Otuel,  Sir,  336 

Ovid,  76.  219,  245 

Owayn's,  Sir,  visit  to  Purgatory,  378 

Owein,  in  Geraint,  304 

Owl  and  Nightingale,  243,  247,  248, 
264  ff.,  324,  403 

Owun,  one  of  the  scribes  of  the  Rush- 
worth  Gospels,  146 

Oxenedes.     See  John  de 

Oxford,  Grimbald's  visit  to,  98;  Trill 
millstream,  225;  Black  Friars  Mills 
and  Road,  225;  Grey  Friars  Mill, 
225;  Preachers'  Bridge,  225;  Grand 
Pont  or  Folly  Bridge,  232;  Dur- 
ham (Trinity)  College,  239;  riot 
at,  199,  376;  and  Paris,  168,  203  ff., 


556 


Index  of  Names 


Oxford — Continued 

247,  259;  Merton  College,  236,  371 ; 
professorships  of  "Anglo-Saxon" 
at,  427;  Jewry,  225;  Church  of  St. 
Edward,  225;  St.  Ebbe's,  225;  St. 
Frideswide,  212,  214 


Padua,  Baconthorpe  at,  236 

Palamon  and  Palaemon,  310,  318 

Palermo,  Michael  Scot  at,  221 

Panta  river,  or  Blackwater,  45,  159 

Paolo  and  Francesca,  300,  406 

Paradiso,  109,  170 

Parcae,  the,  in  Boethius,  11 1 

Parcy  Reed,  334 

Paris,  Gaston,  299,  315,  318,  323,  364 

Matthew    (d.    1259),    170,    177, 

193,    197   ff.,    201,    202,    227,    237, 

407 

Notre-Dame,  Cathedral  School 


of,  203,  222;  Quartier  Latin,  205; 
Abbey  of  St.  Victor,  203;  lie  de  la 
C\t6,  203,  205;  hill  and  church  of 
Sainte-Genevieve,  203,  204;  Eng- 
lish scholars  of,  168,  196,  203,  259; 
Sorbonne,  239;  influence  of,    165, 

247 
Parker,  Matthew,  98,  99 
Parliament  of  the   Three  Ages,    372, 

373 

Parthenopaeus,  318 

Parthenopex  de  Blois,  318 

Partonope,  318 

Parzivai.     See    also     Wolfram    von 
Eschenbach,   299,  301,  311 

Paschasius  Radbertus,  137 

Passions  of  Martyrs,  83 

Paternoster,  244,  419,  420 

Paternoster,  Kentish  versions  of  the, 
396 

Patience,  357,  372,  373 

Patrick,  St.    (373-463).   72,  75.  77. 
397 

Paul,  H.,  ix 

Lanfranc's  kinsman   170 

St.,  80,  82,  127,  252 

Paul,  Revelation  of,  82,  95 

Paul,  Vision  of  St.,  130,  252 

Pauli,  R.,  loi,  113 

Paulinus,  83,  90 

of  P^rigueux,  84 

Paulus  Diaconus,  39 

Quaestor,  84 

Peacock,  Thomas  Love,  The  Misfor- 
tunes of  Elphin,  280,  306 
i Pearl,  164,  330,  352  &.,  364,  368,  371, 

372,  423 
Peasants'  Revolt,  415 
Peckham,  John  (d.  1292),  233 
Pegge's  L'lfe  of  Grossesteste,  226 
Pelagius   (fl.   400-418),   72 
Peniarth    library,     Welsh    MS.     in, 

280 
Penitentials,  96 


Peraldus,  William,  396 
Perceval  le  Gallois,  301 
Percyvelle,   Sir   (Perceval,   Percevall, 

Percival),  297,  299,  301,  302,  316^ 

322,  327.      See  also  Parzivai. 
Peredur,  son  of  Evrawc,  281,  301 
Pericles  of  Tyre,  149 
Persius,  84 

Perugia,  chapter  of,  235 
Peterborough,  abbey  of,  445 
Peterborough,  (Cynewulf),  54 
Peterborough  Chronicle,   120,   122  ff., 

152,  432,  433,  444 
Peterborough.     See  Benedict  of 
Peter  de  la  Celle,  206 

Gregory's  deacon,  116 

of    Blois    (fl.    1160-1204),    192, 

195,  207,  208 

of  Langtoft,  384,  391  f£.,  400 

St.,  130 

the  writer,  294 

Peter,  Revelation  of,  95 

Peterhouse,  228 

Petrarch,  239 

Petrus  Comestor,  171,  213,  261,  383 

Peutinger  Table,  78 

Pliant asma  Radulphi,  371 

Philip  n,  342,  343 

de  Valois,  399 

■  the  Bold,  395 

Philippa,  queen,  400 
Philocosmia  (Adelard),  170 
Philomela,  in  Orosius,   105 
Philosophia,  (Adelard),   170 
Phoenix,  46,  57,  64,  65 
Physiologus of  Thethaldns,  252.     See 

also  66,  266 
Old  English,  65,  66.     See  also 

Bestiaries 
Pierre  d'Ailly,  Imago  Mundi,  232 
Piers  Plowman,  Vision  of,  313,  324, 
■  373,  388,  389,  393,  399,  402,  4i5v 

423 
Piers  the  Usurer,  tale  of,  380,  386 
Pilate,  Pontius,  302 
Pilkington,  Gilbert,  409 
Plato,  1 10,  208, 236 
Plegmund,  (d.  914),  102 
Plegwin,  Bede's  letter  to,  88 
Pliny  the  Elder,  84,  88,  89,  212 
Plummer,  C,  87,  89,  91,  93,  103,  115, 

•     123 

Pluto,  328 

Plynlimmon,   278 

Poema  Morale,  244,  252,  377,  420 

Political  songs  of  England,  413 

Pollock,  Sir  F.  and  Maitland,  F.  W., 
History  of  English  Law,  193,  200 

Poore,  Richard,  bishop  of  Salisbury, 
256 

Porphyry,  Commentary  on,  by  Will- 
iam of  Ockham,   235 

Porrus  (Porus),  341 

Powell,  David,  291 

York,  in  Social  England,  412 


Index  of  Names 


557 


Powys,  prince,  of,  217 

Praxapostolos,  85 

Preideu  Annwvyi,  or  The  Har rowings 

of  Hell,  279 
Priscian,  125,  131,  205,  233 
Priscus,  22 
Priwen,  or  Pridwen,   Arthur's  ship, 

275.  279 
Procopius,  20 
Prosper,  83,  84 
Protasius,  83 
Protesilaus,  311 
Provenfal  legends,  127 

version  of  Boethius,  109 

Proverbs,     Old    English,     406.     See 

also  Hendyng  and  Alfred 
Prudentius,  83,  84 
Psalms,   Old   English  versions,    117, 

163;  Northern  Psalter,  380 
Pseudo-Kallisthenes,  149 
Pseudo-Melito,  83 
Ptolemy,  237 

Pullen,  Robert  (d.?  1147),  205 
Pwyll,  prince  of  Dyved,  and  family 

of,  280 
Pylades,  320 


Rabanus  of  Mainz,  89 

Radcliffe,  Mrs.,  310 

Ragnell,  in  Wedding  of  Sir  Gawain, 

348 
Ralph,  earl  of  Norwich,  156 

of  Coggeshall  (fi.  1207),  195 

of  Diceto  (d.   1202?),   177,   178, 

192,  195,  209 
Ramsay,   Allan,   323 
Randal,  Lord,  334 
Ranulf   de   Glanville  (d.  1190),  192, 

200,  216 
Rashdall's    Universities    of    Europe, 

224 
Ratramnus,  83,  129,  139 
Ranf  Coilyear,  324 
Raymund  of  Pennaforte,  396 
Real  Presence,  doctrine  of  the,  170 
Recarede,  king,  116 
Red  Book  of  Hergest,  276,  280,  292 
Ree's  Camhro-British  Saints,  291 
Reginald  of  St.  Augustine's,  Canter- 
bury, 212 
Regulus,    in    Alfred's   Boethius   and 

Orosius,  105,  III 
Reliquae  Antiquae,  Wright  and  Halli- 

well,  404,  408 
Renan,  E..  281,  305 
Renauard  the  fox,   409 
Renaud  de  Beaujeu,  316 
Retines.     See  Robert  de 
Retinues   of   the  Great  People,   Song 

against  tlte.  A,  413 
Reynard  the  Fox,  409 
Rheged,  Urien's  lordship  of,  277 
Reims,  council  of,  205 
Rhonabwy,  Dream  of,  281 


Rhuys.  life  of  Gildas  by  a  monk  of, 

72 
Rhys  ap  Tewdwr,  284 

J.,  278  ff.,  282,  283,  303 

Rich,  St.  Edmund,  of  Abingdon  or 

Pontigny   (i  i7o?-i24o),   228,   378, 

Richard  I,  193  ff.,  220,  376.   See  also 

under  the  romance 

II,  359 

of  Bury,  (1281-1345).  203,  237, 

238 
of  Cornwall,  brother  of  Henry 

III,  411 
of  Devizes  (fl.  1189-1192),  177, 

189,  192,  195 

of  Dover,  208 

L'Eveque,  204 

prior  of  Hexham  (fi.  1138-1154) 

179 
Richard  Cceur  de  Lion,  319,  342  fif., 

353.  354.  446 
Richard  I,  History  of  King,  194 
Richardson,  S.,  355 
Riddles,  Old  English,  54,  56,  66,  67; 

runes  in,  13;  Latin,  86 
Rievaulx.     See  Ailred  of 
Riming  Poem,  68,  418 
Rishanger,    William    (i25o?-iii2  ?), 

201 
Ritson,  J.,  403 
Robert,  archbishop,  122 
-de     Monte     (iiio?-ii86),     or 

Robert  of    Torigni,  186,  189,   191, 

194,  284 

of  Cricklade  (11 5  7-1 170),  212 

of  Gloucester  and  his  Chronicle, 

168,  189,  332,  374  ff.,  391,  421 

of  Melun  (d.  1 167),  204 

prior  of  Winchester,  195 

the  Englishman,  or  Robert  de 

Retines  (fi.  1141-1143),  169 
Robert  of  Sicily,  3 1 9 
Robertson,  J.  G.,  ix 
Robin  Hood,  242,  334,  412,  415 
Roe,  28 
Roger  of  Hoveden,  177,  178,  191  ff., 

197 
of   Wendover    (d.    1236),     176, 

198 
Roland  and  Vernagu,  336 
Roland,  tales  and  song  of,  313,  315, 

334,  336 
Rolle,  Richard,  of  Hampole,  407,  446 
Roman  Breviary,  58 
Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  312,  324,  358, 

369 
Rome,  intercourse  with  and  influence 

of,  71,  79,  87,  165,  205,  217 
Rondiel,  in  Turnament  of  Totenham, 

409 
Rood,  legend  of,  147,  380,  381.     See 

also  Dream  of  the  Rood  and  Cross 
Rosalind,  in  As  You  Like  It,  332 
Roscellinus,  236 


55« 


Index  of  Names 


Rose,  poem  by  Hilarius,  212 

Roses,  Wars  of  the,  335, 

Roswall  and  Lilian,  324 

Round  Table,  the,  261,  279,  283,  289, 

293,  295,  296,  318,  364,  375 
Rufina,  St.,  82 
Rufinus,  73,  83,  129 
Ruin,  The,  i,  4,  43 
Runes,  7 
Runic  Poem,  68 
Rush  worth,  J.,  146 
Rtishworth  Gospels,  146 
Ruskin,  J.,  241 
Ruthwell  Cross,  the,  Dumfriesshire, 

13,  62,  63 
Rymenhild,  princess,  in  Horn,  337, 

340 


Sabellian  heresy,  249 

Sabrina,  in  Geoffrey  of   Monmouth 

189 
Saeferth  (Sigef erth  ?) ,  in  Widsith,  38 
Sagittarius,  bishop  of  Embrun,  74 
Saints,  Lives  and  Legends  of,  132  ff., 

141,  167,  255,  318,  332 
Saintsbury,  G.,  English  Prosody,  322, 

377.  391 

Saladin,  342 

Salisbury.     See  John  of 

Sallust,  84 

Salomon  and  Marcolf,  proverb  dia- 
logues, 242 

Salomon  and  Saturn,  Dialogue  of,  11, 
68,  84 

Salonius,  bishop  of  Gap,  74 

Saltrey.     See  Henry  of 

Samson,  82 

abbot,  195 

Samuel,  son  of  Beulan,  78 

Sandys,  J.  E.,  Classical  Scholarship, 
229 

Saracens,  in  romance,  313,  326,  336, 
338  ff.,  353 

Satan,  in  Genesis  B  and  Paradise 
Lost,  50,  51 

Saturn,  in  Boethius,  1 1 1 

Saturn.     See  Salomon  and  S. 

Savile,  Sir  Henry,  237 

Sawles   Warde,  252,  253,  396 

Saxo  Grammaticus,  8,  9,  28,  30,  31, 

38,41 
Saxon,  Old,  paraphrase  of  Bible,  57 
Scaccario,  Dialogus  de,  or  Dialogiie  of 

the  Exchequer ,  Rd.  Fitz-Neale,  193 
Sceldwea,  in  Beowulf,  31 
Schaarschmidt  {J oh.  Saresberiensis), 

204 
Schepss,  G.,  Ill 
Schipper,  J.,  106 
Schism,  the  Great,  415 
Schofield,  W.  H.,  67 
Scholastica,  82 
Schorer,  A.,  126 
Scipio,  105 


Scop,  the,  3,  64 

Scot,    Michael     (i  175  ?-i234?),    169, 

221 
Scotish  Feilde,  325 
Scotists,  theological  school  of,  234 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  221,  310,  315,  320 
Scottish  Chaucerians,  331 
Scribes,  18 
Scriptoria,  20,  169 
Scyld,  in  Beowulf,  2,  24,  28,  31 
Seafarer,  i,  2,  42,  46,  59,  306 
Sechnall,  Hymn  of  St.,  72 
Secunda,  St.,  82 

Sedulius,  the,  at  Antwerp,  79,  84 
Sempringham,  384.     See  also  Gilbert 

of 
Seneca,  84,  no,  in,  236,  396 
Septuagint,  the,  85 
Sermun,  Lutel  Soth,  251 
Seth, 148 

Seven  Sages  of  Rome,  318,  343,  344 
Seven  Sins  (Byrhtferth),   145 
Severn,    Layamon's    house    on    the 

banks  of,  260,  294 
Sextus  Placidus,  English  version  of 

Medicina  de  quadrupedibus ,  150 
Shakespeare,  i,  7,  168,  307,  330,  332, 

352 
Shelley,  413 

Shepherd  of  Hermas,  83 
Sidonius,  84 

Sievers,  E.,  51,  60,  66,  112,  416 
Sigef  erth,  in  Finnsburh,  34 
Sigemund,  in  Beowulf,  25,  28 
Sigeric,  133 

archbishop  of  Canterbury,   128 

Sigewulf,  134 

Sigferth  of  Sigweard,  139,  140 

Signs  of  Death,  252 

Sigrdrifumdl,  68 

Sigrim,  the  wolf,  409 

Simeon   of  Durham  (fl.    1130),   100, 

163,  178  £f.,  193 
Simon,  abbot,  198 

archbishop  of  Canterbury,  354 

de  Montfort,  199,  227,  228,  377, 

378,  411 
Simon,  St.,  397 
Sinners  Beware,  251,  252 
Siward,  abbot  of  Abingdon,   121 
Sixille,  priory  of,  or  Six  Hills,  near 

Market  Rasen,  384 
Skaldskaparmdl,  30 
Skeat,  W,  W.,  ix,  332 
Skene,  W.  F.,  Four  Ancient  Books  of 

Wales,  274,  276 
Skioldr  and  Skioldunga  Saga,  28,  30, 

32 
Sluys,  battle  of,  399,  401 
Smaland,  104 
Smaradgus,  129 
Smith,  Miss  Steel,  ix 
Social  Satire  in  Middle  English,  402 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  in  Cleanness,. 

360 


Index  of  Names 


559 


Sol,  in  Welsh  tradition,  283 

Solinus,  84,  90 

Solomon,  68,  69,  148   228,  390 

Somme  des  Vices  et  Virtus,  or  Li 
Livres  roiaux  des  Vices  et  des  Ver- 
tus,  or  Somme  le  Roi,  395 

Somme  le  Roi,  395 

Sophistici  Elenchi,  229 

Soul  and  Body  Addresses,  67,  143,  252 

Southampton,  Arthur's  departure 
from,  in  Wace's  Brut,  263 

Minot's  poem  on  the  battle  of, 

399. 401 
Spain,  Moors  in,  169 
Speculutn  Ecclesiae,  229 
Spens,    Sir  Patrick,  334 
Spenser,  E.,  170;  Faerie  Queene,  316 

Red  Cross   Knight,   329;  Sir  Cali- 

dore  in,  367 
Squire  of  Low  Degree,  321,  351 
St.  Albans,  169,  177,  193,  198,  201, 

202,  214,  238 
St.   David's,    98,    215,    217 
St.    Edmundsbury,     180,     195.    201. 

See  also  Bury  St.  Edmunds 
St.   Gall,   Bede's  Death  Song  at,  67 
St.  Hubert's  abbey  in  the  Ardennes, 

91 
St.   Michael's  Mount,    in   Arthurian 

legend,  285,  289 
St.  Swithun,  128,  133,  134,  144 
Starcatherus,  28 
Statius,  189 
Stephen,   King,    123,   179,   184,    186, 

190,  191,  407,  412 ;  Acts  of  Stephen, 

179,  181,  185,  186 
Stevenson,  F.  S.,  226 

R.  L.,  168,  410 

W.  H.,99 

Stow,  J.,  Annals,  375 
Strassburg,     See  Gottfried  von 
Straw,   Jack,  412 
Streoneshalh.     See  Whitby 
Strode,  Ralph,  371,  372 

Stubbs,  W.,  174,  177,  178,  191,  192, 

194 
Suddene,  (Isle  of  Man),  in  Horn,  338 
Sulpicus  Severus,  83 
"Sumer  is  i-cumen  in,"  402 
Stmatorrek,  9 
Sunday  observance,  letter  sent  from 

heaven  on,  148 
Svears,  the,  28 
Svend  Aagesen,  38 
Swallow,  Hereward's  mare,  407 
Swedes,  the,  in  Beowulf,  27,  28 
Sweyn  (d.  1014),  140 
Swinburne,  A.  C.,  Tristram  of  Lyo- 

nesse,  303 
Sylvester,  82,  83 
Symphosius,    5th  cent.   Latin  poet 

66,  84 


Tacitus,  158,  207,  208 


Taine,  H.,  viii 

Tales  in  Middle  English,  402 

Taliesin    (fl.    550)   and  the  Book  of, 

274  ff.,  279,  280,  283,  298 
Tallwch  (father  of  Tristram),  303 
Tamlane,  328,  334 
Tantalus,  in  Orosius,  105 
Tarrent  in  Dorset,  255 
Tartars,  irruption  of  the,  199 
Tatwin  (d.  734),  86 
Tayster.     See  John  de 
Templars,  the,  209 
Temple,  the,  in  the  Cross  legend,  148 
Ten  Brink,  B.,  viii,  112,  158 
Tennyson,  275,  295,  299,  316,  417 
Terentian,  133 

Terilo's  Satire  on  Brazen  Head,  233 
Thackeray,  W.  M.,  320 
Thaun,  P.  de  (fl.  1120),  251,  252 
Thebes,  wars  and  tale  of,  316,  317, 

318,  342 
Thecla,  82 
Thegan's  Life  of  Ludwig  the  Pious, 

99 
Theobald,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

205 
Theodberht,  29 
Theodore  (6o2?-69o),  archbishop  of 

CanterE)ur3rr37T8-^.  8<S7^2JI ^^ 
Theodoric  of  Chartres,  205 
Theodric,  Ostrogothic  king,  22,  23, 

38,  40,  41,  109 

in  Deor,  40,  41 

— ——  I>  29 

Theophanius,  Count,  116 

Theseus,  in  Orosius,  105 

Thetbaldus,  251 

Thomas,  (c.  11 70),  303,  345.35a 

a.     See  Becket. 

h..     See  Kempis 

de  Hales  (fl.  1250),  259 

of  Erceldoune,  352,  397 

St.,  82,  83,  133,  258 

St.,  English  song  on,  129 

Thomas,  Acts  of,  83 

Thomas   Saga,   212 

Thor,  myths  of,  331 

ThorgerSr,  daughter  of  Egill  Skalla- 

grimsson,  9 
Thorneganus   (or  Byrhtferth),  145 
Thorpe,  B.,  128,  129 
Thorstein,  the  Red,  319 
Three  Children,  the,  82 
Thrush  and  the  Nightingale,  TJte,  405 
Thrytho,  in  Beowidf,  26 
Thule,  29,  no,  239 
Thurneysen,  273 

Thurston,  king,  in  Horn,  319,  203 
Tibbe,  daughter  of  Rondill  the  refe, 

in  Tlte  Ttirnament  of  Totenhani,  409 
Tilbury.      See  Gervase  of 
Times,  Song  on  the,  413 
Tinchebray,  battle  of,  174 
Tintagol  or  Tintagle,  the  castle    of, 

287-  i02, 


56o 


Index  of  Names 


Titus  and  Vespasian,  272,  273 
Toledo,  English  scholars  at,  169,  221 
Tomkyn,  in  Turnament  of  Totenham, 

409 
Torigni,  see  Robert  of 
Torrent  of  Portugal,  352 
Toulouse,  Dominicans  at,  222 
Tournay,  siege  of,   Laurence  Minot 

on,  398,  400 
Traill,  H.  D.,  ix 
Trautmann,  M.,  66,  130 
Trentals  of  St.  Gregory,  347 
Triamour,  Sir,  352 

Tristram,  Sir,   in  Arthurian  legend, 
262,  290,  296,  300,  302  ff.,  314,  315, 
323,  331  ff.,  344,  345,  349,  352 
Troilus,  341.     See  also  under  Chaucer 
Trokelowe,  201.     See  John  of 
Troy,  legends  of,  164,  216  (Joseph  of 
Exeter),  260  (Layamon),  287,  310, 
317,  341,  381;  Troy  Book,  324,  372, 
373 ;  Geste  Hystoriale  of  the  Destruc- 
tion of,  341,  372 
Truso,  in  Ohthere  104 
Turk's  Legal  Code  of  Alfred,  107 
Ttirlin,  W.  von  dem,  299 
Turnament  of  Totenhafn,  409 
Twrch     Trwyth     (Nennius's     porcus 

Troit),  274,  282 
Tyler,  Wat,  412 
Tyndale,  or  Tindal,  W.,  234 
Tyr  (Old  Norse  alphabet),  10 
Tyre,  in  King  Alisaunder,  342 
Tysilio's  Brut,  261,  292 


Uath  Mac  Denomain,  giant  in  Fled 

Brier  end,  365 
Ubbe,  in  Havelok,  339 
Ueberweg,  F.,  History  of  Philosophy, 

234 
Ulfilas,  bishop  of  the  West  Goths  (b. 

311    A.D.?),    7 

Upplond  (Norway  and  Sweden),  29 

Uriah,  103 

Urian,  in  Arthurian  legend,  288 

Urien,  lord  of  Rheged,  277 

Urquhart,  Sir  Thomas,  77 

Ursula,  in  Layamon,  263 

Usk,  Thomas,  Testament  of  Love,  441 

Usuard,  89 

Uther  in  Arthurian  legend,  288,  351 


Vafpru6nismdl,  68 

Valerius,  Epistle  of,  to  Rufinus,  196, 

210 
Valkyries,  44 
Vaughan,  H.,  257 
Venantius  Fortunatus,  8,  84 
\'enedotian  code  of  laws  of  Wales, 

276 
Vener,  lake,  29 
Vercelli  Book,  The,  13,  58,  59,  61,  67 


Vergil,  71  flf.,  78  ff.,  83,  84,  213, 
232,  252, 287, 368 

Vernagu,  336 

Vices  and  Virtues,  253 

Vices  et  des  Vertus,  Li  Livres  roiaux 
des,  395 

Viciis,  Summa  seu  Tractatus  de,  396 

Victoria,  St.,  83 

Victor,  63 

Vilkina  Saga,  35,  38 

Virgin  cult,  244,  247,  251,  252,  404. 
See  also  under  Mary 

Vistula,  the,  38,  104  (in  Ohthere) 

Vitalian,  pope,  425 

Vivian,  214 

Volsunga  Saga,  26,  38 

Volumen  Britanniae,  or  Book  of 
Britain,  77  ff. 

Volundarkviba,  Old  Norse  poem,  39 

Voragine,  Jacobus  a.     See  Jacobus 

Vortigern  (fi.  450),  78 

Vortipor  of  Pembrokeshire,  74 

Vosges,  the,  in  Waltharius,  36 

Vox  and  the  Wolf,  409 

Vulgate,  the,  51,  93,  94,  100,  107,  231, 
448.  See  also  Latin  Old  Testa- 
ment and  Psalms,  84,  394 


Wace  (fi.  1170),  189,  258,  260,  261  ff., 
284,  292  ff.,  375,  376,  383,  391 

Wade,  242 

Wadington.     See  William  of 

Waldef,  i.  e.  Waltheof,  321 

Waldhere,  SS'  35.  36,  39.  4°.  45.  277. 
308 

Walgainus  =  Gawain,  in  Arthurian  le- 
gend, 299 

Walhalla,  47,  69 

Walter,  friend  of  Henry  of  Hunting- 
don, 185 

archdeacon  of  Oxford,  186,  285 

,  Hubert,  190,  191 

'of  Hemingburgh  (fl.  1300),  190 

Waltharius,  35,  36 

Wanderer,  4,  41,  42,  306,  416 

Wanley,  H.,  50,  142 

Wantage,  118 

Ward,  H.  L.  D.,  Catalogue  of  Ro- 
mances, 212, 300 

Warinus,  189 

Warton,  T.,  viii,  403,  421 

Waurin,  Chroniques  et  istoires,  262 

Waverley,  in  Surrey,  monastery  and 
annals  of,  197,  212,  376 

Wealhtheow,  in  Beowulf,  24,  25,  26, 
27 

Wearmouth,  monastery  of,  e,,  79,  80, 
86,  88,  91  ff.,  98 

Weber,  Immanuel,  De  Nigello  Wire- 
kcro,  213 

Wedding  of  Sir  Gawain.     See  Gawain 

W eland  Saga,  12;  in  Deor,  40.  See 
also  III,  242 

Wells,  336 


Index  of  Names 


561 


Wendland.      104 

Wendover.     See   Roger  of 

Werferth,  103,  1 16 

Werwolf,  the,  in  William  of  Palerne, 

352 
Wessex  under  Alfred,  97,  98 
West  Saxon  Gospels,  146,  147 
Westernesse  (Wirral?),  in  Horn,  338 
Weston,  Miss  J.  L.,  300,  366 
Wheloc,  A.,  124 
Whitby,  46,  106 

White  Book  of  Rhy^erch,  The,  280 
White  Sea,  the,   104 
Widia  (Wudga),  in  Waldhere,  39 
Widsith,  1,  3,  21,  22,  23,  34,  37,  39, 

Wife  of  Usher's  Well,  334 

Wife's  Complaint,  The,  42,  43 

Wiglaf,  in  Beowulf,  i,  27,  28 

Wihenoc,  the  Breton,  284 

Wil  and  Wit,  253 

Wilfrid,  St.,  archbishop  of  York (634- 

709),  17.  71,  Q5 
Willem,  Fleming,  409 
William  II,  180,  210 

de  la  Mare  (fi.  1284),  233 

of  Auvergne,  230 

of  Champeaux,  204 

of  Malmesbury  (d.  1 143  ?),  5,  80, 

99,  100,  106, 107, III, 115,  116,  171, 

174,   176,  179,  181,  185,  190,  191, 

242,  270,  278,  284,  285,  291,  299, 

376 
of  Newburgh  (1136-1198),   75, 

178,    179,    187,    188,    190  ff.,    272, 

283 

of  Ockham  (d.  1349?)  222,  235 

of  Shoreham,  394  ff. 

of  Wadington,  226,  384  ff.,  389, 

390 


the   Conqueror,    122,    156,    165, 

166,  171,  284,  443 
William   of  Palerne,    313,    317,    325, 

352,  398,  422 
Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh  (d.  1554),  140 
Winchester,  Annals  of,  197 
monastery  and  school  of,    125, 

126,  128,  131,  139 
Winchester  Chrontcle,  115,  119,  122. 

See  also  under  Chronicle 
Windsor,  412 
Winteney,  Nuns  of,  256 
Wireker,   Nigel   (fl.   1190),   192,   195, 

213 
Wirral,  338 
Woden,  44,  243 
Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  298,  299, 

301,  311,  328 


Woman,  A  Song  on,  404 

of  Samaria,  250,  251 

Wonders  of  the  East,  149 
Wood,  Antony,  221 
Worcester,  Annals  of,  197 

copy  of  Pastoral  Care,  102 

Worcester,     See  Florence  of 
Worcester  or  Evesham  Chronicle,   120 

See  also  under  Chronicle 
Wordsworth,  189,  273,  400 
Worms  as  a  Frankish  town,  36 
Wright,  W.  Aldis,  376 

Thomas,  viii,  392,  403 

Wudga,  in  Widsith.  38 

Wulfgeat,  Aelfric's  English  letter  to, 

139 
Wulfmaer,  159 
Wulfsige,  137,  140 
Wulfstan     (d     1023),   archbishop   of 

York,  5,  137.  138,  140,  141  ff.,  147, 

158 

of  Winchester,  138 

St.,  1S2 

voyage  of,  104 

Wiilker,  R.,  ix,  55,  113,  117 

Wyclif,  J.,   226,  233,  235,  371,  410, 

414.  448 
Wygar,  the  smith,  maker  of  Arthur's 

Corselet,  in  Layamon,  262,  294 
Wykes,  Thomas,  of  Osney  (fl.  1258- 

1293),  201 
Wynnere  and  Wastoure.  272,  273 
Wyntoun.     See  Andrew  of 
Wyrd,  45 


Ylmandun  (Ilmington),  139 

Ynglingatal,  28,  29 

Ynglingla  Saga,  3,  28,  104 

York,  School  of,  5,  65,  93,  97;  Alcuin 

at,    65,    93,    96;    connection    with 

Worcester,    123,    140,   142;  Bede's 

journey  to, 87 
Yorkshire,  Laurence  Minot  and,  398 

William  of  Wadington  and  Peter  of 

Langtoft,  384 
Ypotis,  318 

Yspadaden  Pen  Kawr,  282 
Ystorya  BrenJiined  y  Brytanyeit,  292 
Ywain  and  Gawain,  and  Sir  Ywain 

311,  312,  314,  316,  320,  348 


Zeuss,  J.  C,  37 

Zimmer,    H.,     Nennius     Vindicatus, 

etc.,  72,  75,  77,  273,  299 
Zupitza,  J.,  ix 


36 


i 


1791 


T'-'  '•>F  C/Kv     FC 


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